Adipurush director Om Raut says he’s ‘not surprised’ with negative reaction to teaser: ‘It’s not made for small screen’

Adipurush director Om Raut has defended his film amid negative reaction to its teaser. The first teaser of the highly-anticipated film released on Sunday, and revealed the first look of Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, based on Lord Rama, Goddess Sita, and Ravana from the epic Ramayana respectively. While some praised the teaser, many criticised it for the quality of the CGI and VFX. Also Read| Hilarious Instagram post shows how Adipurush scenes remind fans of GoT, Khilji

Om Raut recently opened up about the negative reaction to the Adipurush teaser and said that he was disheartened with the memes and trolling it got. However, the filmmaker said he was not surprised by the reaction and had anticipated it. The filmmaker, whose last film Tanhaji was also high on VFX, insisted that the audience will have a different reaction to the VFX and CGI in Adipurush when they see it on the big screen.

During a special 3D screening of the teaser, Om Raut said, as reported by Indian Express, “I was disheartened for sure, not surprised because the film is made for a larger medium—the big screen. You can cut it down to some extent but can’t bring it down to a mobile phone. That’s an environment I can’t control. Given a choice, I’d never put it on YouTube but that’s the need of the hour. We need to put it there so that it reaches a wide audience.”

He further clarified, “My partner and the studio (T-Series) is the largest YouTube channel in the world. This film does require audience that comes to cinema halls very rarely— primarily the senior citizen generation that doesn’t come to cinemas, or people from remote locations who don’t have access to theaters. We need those people to come and see the film because it’s Ramayana…We need to reach a wider audience and get them excited. So, as I said, I was not surprised because it’s not made for smaller screen. It’s made for a larger screen and I can’t consume it on a smaller screen.”

Adipurush will be released in IMAX and 3D when it hit the theatres on January 12, 2023. Produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar of T-series, Raut, Prasad Sutar, and Rajesh Nair of Retrophiles, the mythological drama will be released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada languages.