What went Wrong with Adipurush? | The Indian Film Industry Formula

 Hello, friends!

The film Adipurush created an uproar all across the country. The terrible dialogues,

 poor VFX,

 and copied scenes of this film were heavily criticized by the people.

 But by the time people realized it, it was quite a bit late. In the first 3 days, the film had earned ₹2.50 billion at the Indian box office. It's a different matter that the film completely crashed after this. after 20 days of its release, it can not cross ₹2.90 billion. It is almost out of the theaters. But there is one question that arises here, now that things have cooled down. 

What was the reason behind making this film?

  The film's director, dialogue writer, actors, no one looked at the film and thought about what they were making. If you think about this seriously, you will find out some shocking things about the film industry. Adipurush was just an example of a new trend raging across the industry. Friends, if you hear that an epic like Ramayan, is being turned into a movie of ₹7 billion, then obviously you will expect that even the minute details will be taken care of. After all, this is so much money. Spending ₹7 billion means that this is the most expensive film in Indian history. So of course this money will be spent wisely and all small details will be taken care of. But forget the small details, even the basic parts of the story were turned upside down. In Valmiki's Ramayan,

 Jatayu is a vulture, but here he is an eagle. The filmmakers say that it was their creative liberty. Look at this painting of Jatayu's sacrifice,

 pantied by eminent painter, Ravi Varma. In this painting, you will get more emotion than in this scene from Adipurush. We know about Ravan's Lanka.

 It is made of gold. According to Valmiki's Ramayan. But here, they have made Lanka so black that it looks like it is made of coal. Ravan actually travelled in Pushpak Vimaan.

 We have seen it even in this animated Ramayan from 1992. This was made by Japanese people but it was such a wonderful depiction of Ramayan. But in Adipurush, Ravan flies on a bat! Is this a bat or a dragon? I can't figure it out. We have heard about the Vaanar Sena.

 In some versions of the Ramayana, monkeys are shown as the soldiers of Vaanar Sena. But in Adipurush, they put a gorilla in the Vaanar Sena. Where did a gorilla come from? Gorillas are not native to India. They are found only in Africa. In Valmiki's Ramayana, there is a moving description of how Ravan kidnaps Sita.

 But in Adipurush, Sita becomes unconscious and starts floating in the air. As if this is some Evil Dead type of horror film. If we talk about Hollywood films, we see some weird similarities. Like,

 Ravan's Lanka looks too similar to Thor's Asgard. And this background looks

 like it's taken from the game Temple Run. And these flying demons,

 seems like flying dementors from Harry Potter universe. 

Was it truly creative liberty? Or was it copied liberty? 

 Apart from this, many important details of Ramayana have been misrepresented in Adipurush. Like, when Lord Ram agrees to help there were two fights between Sugreev and his brother Bali. Because the first time, Lord Ram can't tell the difference between Sugreev and Bali. Because they brothers looked identical. But in the film, there was only one fight. Another major mistake was when Lord Ram and Lakshman return to their hut and they realize that Sita was not there. This was followed by the heart-wrenching scenes of Ram's grief. They go in search of Sita and then they meet Jatayu. Jatayu tells them that Ravan kidnapped Sita. But what is shown in this film? Ram and Lakshman watch Ravan kidnap Sita. Looking at such mistakes, it is evident that this is not about creative liberty. Basically, the people making this film were lazy. They wanted to finish the work quickly without going into too many details. Ramayan and Ramcharitmanas are not only religious scriptures, they are excellent examples of literary excellence. The way they have been written in rhythmic poetry, that is why we call them Maha Kavya, epic poems. 

But what is the literary element in Adipurush?

 

 "Is it your aunt's garden that you're taking a stroll here?" Or those dialogues like

 'Jaladi'. 

How do they fit into Ramayana? 

The filmmakers say that this film was made for the people of this generation because apparently, people speak like this nowadays. If this was the case, then why wasn't the whole story based on the present-day world? They could have used modern-day characters. The thing is, these are all just excuses to sell the film Before the release, Manoj Muntashir said that this film is totally based on the Ramayana. That they haven't made any alterations to it. 

Manoj Muntashir : "Have we tried to modernize it? Did we take any other take? The direct answer to this is, absolutely not. The Ramayana that people have heard, read, and seen this is exactly the same Ramayana, no changes."

  And now they say that this film is merely 'inspired' by Ramayana, it's just a retelling. 

Manoj Muntashir : "We haven't made Ramayana, we are inspired by Ramayana." 

But does referring to Lord Ram as Raghav, make this film a retelling? Some examples of good retellings are, Vishal Bhardwaj's film,

 Maqbool. Which is a retelling of Macbeth. Or Omkara,

 a retelling of Othello. Or Rajneeti,

 Prakash Jha's film, which is a retelling of Mahabharata. Set in the modern period, it shows the political rivalry between two political clans. Many creative liberties have been taken. But the principles and values that are in Mahabharata, greed, envy, a hunger for power, the same values are shown in the film. Even the film Bahubali, is said to be a loosely inspired retelling of Mahabharata. The truth is that they have heavily copied the production design of the film. Parts from Game of Thrones, Aquaman, King Kong, Thor, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In fact, even the dialogue, were copied from YouTube videos.

Amogh Lila Das said this, "Ravan's torch, Ravan's fuel, Ravan's pyre." "Whose fuel? Ravan's. Whose torch? Ravan's. Whose fire? Ravan's. And who was burnt?" 

Was Amogh Lila Das a co-writer of this film? No. Then why was his statement copied? 

Manoj Muntashir : further said that his grandmothers told him the story of Ramayana this way. 

But the point remains, are his grandmothers co-writers of this film? Mr Manoj Muntashir, the writer has to write himself. They cannot simply copy other people's work, or translate Robert Lavery's poem,

 Call Me, into Hindi titled, 'Mujhe Call Karna'.

 Songwriter Shakeel Ajmi wrote, "If I die, I will become the soil, and live again as a flower on a branch." So Manoj wrote, "I will become the soil and blossom as a flower." The truth is that this entire film was made to exploit religious sentiments. The filmmakers thought that since they were making a film on Ramayana. People will flock to watch it. And they will earn a lot of money. 

So why should they waste time on small details?

 They weren't bothered. People will come to watch it for the sake of Ramayana and religious sentiments. And to exploit these sentiments, they went to such extremes. They said that in every cinema hall, one seat should be left empty for Lord Hanuman. 

Did this have any logic?

  He even said that while he was writing the film, he would leave his shoes outside his office. 

 Manoj Muntashir : "This is the first film out of my 70 films, when I wrote this film in my office, I left my shoes outside." 

They could do all sorts of drama. They used religion repeatedly to sell this film. Every shortcut to exploit people, was used. They just never took the time to read Valmiki's Ramayana or Ramcharitmanas. Had they taken the time to read it, it would have been a good film. And finally, they would have learned its core lesson about why Ravan was defeated. He was defeated because of his ego. The biggest lesson in Ramayana is that don't be egoistic like Ravan. Be humble like Ram. Here, Manoj Muntashir was blamed the most because he spent the maximum time promoting the film. But the film's director, Om Raut,

 and film's producer, Bhushan Kumar of T-Series,

 should also be blamed. 

How was such bad screenplay approved? Why was it approved?

  Friends, here we should talk about a trend which is being seen in the film industry for a long time. The trend of making formula films. Films that make the most profit and whose main aim is only to earn profit. The originality, creativity, and lessons in other films are simply ignored. These formula films work on some rules. 

Rule #1, never try anything new. Do what works normally, that you know can earn the most profit, stick to that time and time again. 

Rule #2, action films. Action films have the highest success rate. If you look at the list of 50 highest-grossing Indian films on Wikipedia, you'll see that this genre is the most popular. RRR, Bahubali, KGF, Pathan, 2.0, Tiger Zinda Hai, Dhoom 3, Vikram, War, Brahmastra, Chennai Express, Saaho, Kick, Simba, Krish 3, Bang Bang, Raees, Race 3, There are so many action films. But if you look at the list of highest-grossing films, adjusted for inflation, a very different picture emerges. After adjusting for inflation, many old movies move up the list. This shows that the older movies used to earn a lot without being action films. These include romantic movies like Shree 420, DDLJ, Mughal-e-Azam, Family dramas like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Social dramas like Mother India, Naya Daur, Patriotic films like Kranti. But in this age of Insta Reels and Snapchat Streaks, it is said that when you go to watch a movie, leave your heart and mind at home. Stop making intellectual and emotional movies. People's attention span is decreasing, so make action movies only. These action movies have the same story, there is a hero who fights the villain and defeats the villain. Sometimes the hero and villain are two kings. Sometimes the hero is an army soldier and the villain is a Pakistani soldier. Sometimes the hero is a RAW agent, and the villain is a terrorist. Sometimes the hero is a policeman, and the villain is a mafia ganglord. There will be fights between them. Bullets, swords, kicks or punches. A fight is a must. 

Rule #3, if possible, make a sequel, prequel or a remake of the film. If a film did well, then its sequels will do well too. If people like the first one, they will be back to watch the sequel. If the film is part of a franchise or a film universe, then it's even better. This trend is seen everywhere. Be it Bollywood, Tollywood or Hollywood. Avengers, Fast and Furious, KGF, Krrish, Golmaal, Dhamal, Singham, Phukre, Bhool Bhulaiya, Drishyam. Familiar characters have a recall value. So the audience will come to the theatres, no matter how bad the sequel is. Welcome was an awesome film by Akshay Kumar in 2007. Memes from this film can still be seen on social media. But to make more money, a sequel to this film was made, Welcome Back. 

How many of you know about that sequel?

 Similarly, the same thing happened to Dhamaal. Two sequels to Dhamaal were made. Golmaal's sequels are still being made. The first film made a lot of money, so the sequels are almost guaranteed to make money. There are very few filmmakers who can resist these trends. Like Anurag Kashyap,

 he was asked in an interview if he would make the third part of Gangs of Wasseypur. He refused. The film Gangs of Wasseypur was made in two parts because the story was very long. The films were created together right from the beginning. Anurag Kashyap said that he wants to make new films instead of milking the success of that movie. 

Rule #4, if there is a super hit film make its remake.

 Tamil film, Arjun Reddy's remake, Kabir Singh. Telugu film, Maryada Ramanna's remake, Son of Sardar. Marathi film Sairat was a hit. So the Hindi film industry made its remake, Dhadak. The original Malayalam film Drishyam was a huge hit, so it was remade into Hindi. The Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking became Hera Pheri in Hindi. A film like Devdas has been remade 16 times. 

Rule #5, if possible, remake old songs too and include them in the films. As always, people have that recall value, they will definitely watch the new songs. And then have them played on all FM channels, DJ floors, and Insta Reels. 

Rule #6, if possible, get the superstars for the lead roles. Although the culture of celebrity worship is seen all over the world. But in India, it reaches the next level. People always think that they need to watch their favourite actor's film on the first day's first show. People love these labels. Being a 'die hard' or a 'jabra' fan. If you look at the list of 50 highest-grossing films Only 4 films on it does not have a superstar. Hindi Medium, Kashmir Files, Uri, and Kantara. 

Rule #7, if possible, cast familiar actors for side roles too. Watch this clip from the film Run.

 Do you know Pankaj Tripathi? 

 He debuted in a small role in 2003. But his struggles continued for the next 6-7 years. He begged for new roles. But no one cared. Later, in 2012, he was noticed in Gangs of Wasseypur. After which, he started receiving so many offers as if there were no other character artists. Then Pankaj Tripathi was seen everywhere. The same thing happened to Sanjay Mishra.

 He started out in 1995. He struggled for many years. But when he was finally noticed, in one year, in 2015, he was in 16 films. This concept of auditions and casting calls, is a fraud for most big films. To keep the profits risk-free, the producers don't want to experiment with new faces or new stories. 

Rule #8, the set design and the scenes of the film, they don't need to be creative or original. If possible, copy them from Hollywood movies. You will find many examples of this. Like, Shahrukh Khan's new film, Pathaan,

 that was released recently. It was reported that many scenes were copied from Avengers, Furious 7, Captain America, Iron Man 2, Dark Knight, Mission Impossible 3, No Time To Die, Uncharted 2, and such other films. Look at Adipurush. I gave you the examples from it earlier. 

Rule #9, never question the wrong mindset of people. Don't criticize it. Always try to appease people. If our society views women as objects then you simply have to show the same things in films. Don't question them. Be it the cheap misogynist songs by Honey Singh or Badshah or the item songs in films like Munni Badnaam Hui, Sheila Ki Jawani, and Fevicol Se. If you see stalking becoming a problem in society, then normalize it in films. Even romanticize it. Films like Ranjhana and Tere Naam. If you are ever asked about these issues then reply with, "this is a film, see it as a film, as a form of entertainment. Films don't have any impact on society."

 "There are so many weird things shown in films and it is just a character which was just trying to take a photograph of her. And yes, there is a little bit of, you can say, which is wrong in itself. But we can't show you only good things." 

Whether it is glamorizing gangsters, like in Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Dawood was glamorized, or Abdul Latif in Raees. If you try to show society a mirror, it will be very risky. There are many films that raise social issues. Like

 Article 15, Udaan or Secret Superstar. But these films are very risky. And finally, 

rule #10. Make everything larger than life and invest in heavy marketing. Make the film go viral. Get articles published in all the newspapers. Go to The Kapil Sharma Show, go to radio shows. Be visible everywhere. After the release of the film, keep publishing how much money was collected by the film. How big of a hit is the film at the box office. If there is so much conversation about it, people will get FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. People will wonder about the film. Since the film is so talked about, people will want to go and see why it is so talked about. Now take a film like Tumbbad. It earned only ₹140 million at the box office. But it is difficult to find a single person who has seen this film and did not like it. On the other hand, take the example of the film Saaho, it earned ₹4.07 billion, but hardly anyone liked it. Even Adipurush is a good example of this. So much hype was created about the film that people pre-booked it. This is why Adipurush made so much money in the first 3 days. But after 3 days, when people realized that the film is so bad that it isn't watchable, the effects were seen at the box office. Even so, it had already made around ₹2-₹3 billion These rules may make you think that our film industry produces terrible films only. But that's far from the truth. There are many examples of good movies. 3 Idiots, Dangal, Secret Superstar, Kantara. These movies have earned a lot of money too. But the thing is, most of the people in the film industry don't want to take such risks. These movies carry high risks. So, stick to the formula of making films. They give you guaranteed profits. The creators of Adipurush followed this formula rule by rule. They claimed to make a film on the Ramayana, which already has a big recall value. They knew that people would go watch it for sure. We added a lot of action in the film. Copied many scenes from Hollywood films. Had a superstar like Prabhas in the film so that his fans watch it too. 

They followed every rule, so what was the mistake?

 They used all the formulas, so why didn't they get this extra 2ab?as well? Because, friends, you need to use your brain even while using formulas. These people were so lazy while making this film, that they didn't think about anything else. Their only aim was to make as much money as possible. The religious sentiments of the people that they were planning on exploiting, those religious sentiments worked against them. I'm not saying that focusing on making money is wrong. The problem arises only when making money is your only goal. Even though there are many good films in our film industry, but the number of these amazing films is slowly decreasing each year. As an audience, if you want to make the film industry better, then instead of watching such films, watch the amazing films in cinemas. Tumbbad, Raazi, Queen, Ugly, Article 15, The Lunchbox, English Vinglish. Don't make Sairat and Kantara the exceptions. Such films being hit should be the norm. What do you think? Write about your favourite film in the comments below. If you liked this article you might like the article on Ramayan too. https://latestaroundour.blogspot.com/2023/06/Hidden-Truth-of-Ramayana.html Click here to watch it.

Thank you very much.