Ashutosh Rana slams Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan-starrer Adipurush: 'Audiences will not accept...'

Headlined by Prabhas as Raghava aka Lord Rama, Kriti Sanon as Janaki aka Sita, and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh aka Ravana, the 2023 mythological action film Adipurush was based on Ramayana. The Om Raut directorial was heavily criticised for its pedestrian dialogues, bad performances, and horrible visual effects.

Ashutosh Rana, who plays Ravana in the successful theatre production Humare Ram, has now reflected on why Adipurush failed as a film. In an interview with the Indian Express Screen, when the veteran actor was asked about larger-than-life cinema such as Adipurush failing the audience, Rana replied, "When one is working on a larger-than-life subject, it is important to meet with the craft’s actual necessities, including the dialogues, costume, or how you are going to say something."

The Pathaan actor added, "If we don’t take care of all these factors, then the audience doesn’t appreciate it at all. Be it a film, play, or OTT, it will only be praised when its feelings, language, costume and body language are authentic. Audiences will not accept flaws in mythology, they are emotional about it."

Stating that not all mythological content is trolled, Rana concluded, "The TV show Ramayana was appreciated a lot. The reason was that their actor’s looks, ambience and everything else was kept in mind. People should see Ravana in me, not Ashutosh Rana. Most movies make the same mistake, the audience doesn’t want to see the actor, they want to see the character to feel the emotions and connect."

Even after earning Rs 390 crore worldwide, Adipurush was declared a box office disaster as its budget was nearly Rs 500 crore. The Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, and Saif Ali Khan-starrer became one of the biggest flops in the history of Indian cinema. Om Raut, who won the National Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment for his 2020 film Tanhaji, hasn't announced his next project yet.