Brahmastra: Do you know Ayan Mukerji's film starring Ranbir Kapoor as Rumi was initially called Dragon?

After eight years and several delays, the big-budget entertainer Brahmastra finally releases in cinemas this Friday, September 9. Directed by Ayan Mukerji, the fantasy adventure epic boasts a star-studded cast of Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna Akkineni, and Mouni Roy with Shah Rukh Khan in a guest appearance.

But do you know when the film was conceived, it was initially titled Dragon, and Ranbir's character was named Rumi and not Shiva? It was on March 10, 2019 when Ayan shared a behind-the-scenes image on his Instagram account in which Ranbir was seen sporting long hair and the director had then revealed the backstory behind his character.

Along with the photo, Ayan wrote, "Rumi. First, he was Rumi. Rumi with long hair. This image is from an early look test for the movie. Rumi said, ‘Love is the bridge between you and everything...’, and that feeling is the foundation we started building the protagonist of this movie on. But then, there was a new inspiration, newer thoughts. Dragon became Brahmāstra, we gave Ranbir a haircut, and Rumi became Shiva."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ayan Mukerji (@ayan_mukerji)

When the first motion poster of Brahmastra was released in December last year at a grand event in Delhi, Ayan had explained how the name was changed from Dragon to the present title as he had said, "I don’t know how this news got out, maybe I had mentioned it once on social media. Actually, when Dragon was the title of the film, that time, we had not thought about it. Shiva, in the film, has the power of fire so I wrote the name Dragon on the script. But the film was always rooted and inspired by Indian culture and history. So when the time came to give the title, Brahmastra was always the right title for the film."

READ | Brahmastra: RRR director SS Rajamouli shares what excited him the most about Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt's film

Brahmastra Part One: Shiva is the first part of the planned Astraverse trilogy based on the ancient Indian Astras. The entire Hindi film industry has high hopes for the film, especially after the huge losses incurred due to the box office failure of major movies such as Aamir Khan's Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar's Raksha Bandhan.