Now, writer Manoj Muntashir claims 'Adipurush' isn't 'Ramayana' adaptation

After being lambasted left, right, and center for the "cringe" and "urban" dialogues of Adipurush, writer Manoj Muntashir has been actively defending himself and his work. While he earlier said that a "meticulous thought process went behind writing the dialogues," in a new interview, he has outright denied that Adipurush is a Ramayana adaptation, instead claiming that it is simply "heavily inspired" by it.

'We could have named it Ramayana, but we didn't'

While speaking to Aaj Tak, Muntashir said, "The name of the film is Adipurush. Let me be clear about two things, we have not made Ramayana, we were only inspired by it." "Even if you see our disclaimer, we were very clear about it. It would have been easy for us to name the film Ramayana, keeping in mind the marketing strategies," he added.

'We have not made sampurna Ramayana'

Muntashir further stressed that the makers are certainly inspired by the mythological Hindu epic but cannot say that their film is Ramayana. "But we knew from the beginning that we are only heavily inspired by the Ramayana, but we are not making Ramayana or sampurna Ramayana (complete Ramayana). We just made a small chunk of the battle fought in the Ramayana," he added.

Why writer-lyricist's claims don't hold value now

Munatshir's statement contradicts everything Adipurush stands for since it was conceptualized, presented, and promoted as a retelling of Ramayana. The three primary characters are called Raghav, Janaki, and Lankesh, which are alternate names for Ram, Sita, and Raavan. The makers also booked one seat in each theater for Lord Hanuman since it's believed that he's present everywhere where the story of Ramayana is narrated.

Watch: What Muntashir said during latest interview

Earlier, Muntashir defended himself this way

While speaking to journalist Arnab Goswami on the Republic TV Channel on Friday (June 16) night, Muntashir said the oversimplification of the dialogues "was not an error" and "not all characters in a film can speak the same way." He further said that during Ramayana katha vachan, the elderly often spoke in this way, and certain dialogues have already been popularized by Hindu saints.

Film's controversial dialogues to be reworked 

After facing backlash, Muntashir posted a long tweet in Hindi on Sunday, where he mentioned that out of some 4,000 lines he has written for Adipurush, about five had hurt sentiments. Expressing heavy disappointment and sadness at the abuse that has been hurled toward him and his family, he further stated that the controversial dialogues would soon be altered and added to the movie.