Kriti Sanon is ‘focusing on the cheers and claps’ amid Adipurush backlash; internet reacts to her post

Om Raut’s Adipurush has been mired in controversies ever since it was released on Friday. From criticism of its ‘cringeworthy’ dialogues to Nepal’s ban on Bollywood films until an ‘objectionable’ line is deleted from Adipurush, the film’s cast and crew has not had its easy. However, amid the backlash, Kriti Sanon, who plays Janaki in the film that is inspired by the Hindu epic Ramayana, shared a post about focusing on the ‘cheers and claps’ the film is receiving. Also read: Dipika Chikhlia shares video as Sita; fans say she’s ‘better than Kriti Sanon’

Kriti Sanon’s post

The Ramayana depicts the victory of Lord Ram over the demon king Ravana after latter kidnaps his wife, Sita. In Adipurush, the main characters are Prabhas’ Raghav, Saif Ali Khan’s Lankesh and Kriti’s Janaki.

On Monday, Kriti shared a series of videos of the audience’s reaction to Adipurush via an Instagram post. The clips from inside theatres showed people ‘cheering and clapping’ as they watched Kriti, Prabhas and Saif on the big screen. In her accompanying caption, Kriti wrote, “Focusing on the cheers and claps! (heart and folded hands emojis) Jai Siya Ram (Glory to Sita and Ram).”

Reactions to her post

Many took to the comments section of Kriti’s post to voice their disappointment with the film. A person also questioned the genuineness of Kriti’s post, and wrote, “Don’t worry guys ye inhi ke log hai (the ones clapping and cheering inside the theatres are their own people).” A person also joked, “Achhi tarah suno, vo taliyaan nahi galiyaan hai (Listen carefully, they are not applauses, they are abuses).”

Another one wrote, “Where is the dislike button?” A person also asked, “Who all want to boycott Adipurush movie?” One more said, “Animated Ramayana is better than this.”

Adipurush controversy

The film started making headlines months ago in October, when its teaser was released. Viewers mocked its cartoon-like graphics. Since its release last week, there have also been reports of sporadic protests against the film, challenging the depiction of its characters.

Some in Nepal have also criticised a line from Adipurush that calls Janaki ‘India’s daughter’. Balendra Shah, mayor of Kathmandu, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that he had asked theatres in the city to stop screening all Bollywood films. He added that he had asked the makers of Adipurush to remove the dialogue. News agency ANI reported that Dhanraj Acharya, the mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, had also asked theatres to stop screening the movie.

Adipurush opened to mixed to negative reviews on Friday. Several viewers criticised its visual effects as well as some dialogues that they said trivialised the characters of the much-revered epic, Ramayana. Calls to ban the movie are trending on social media since Friday.

Recently, Adipurush’s co-writer Manoj Muntashir said that some dialogues would be re-written and inserted again into the movie as they had ‘hurt’ viewers, but it’s not clear if he was referring to people in India or Nepal.