Gajendra Chauhan Says 'Ban Adipurush,' Slams Manoj Muntashir for 'Copying' Kumar Vishwas' Dialogue

Mahabharata actor Gajendra Chauhan has lashed out at Adipurush and demanded a ban on the movie. Directed by Om Raut, Adipurush, starring Prabhas, Kriti Sanon and Saif Ali Khan, has been facing criticism over its colloquial dialogues and alleged distortion of the Hindu epic Ramayana and its characters in the movie.

Even though the makers of Adipurush have changed some of the controversial dialogues in the movie after a massive backlash, Gajendra said that it wouldn’t make any difference as the damage has already been done.

“No matter how much you try to improve it, it won’t change. It won’t bring any benefit. People have already punished the filmmaker. Look at the collection on the first day and today. They deserve punishment, and they should be punished. I am even surprised by the decisions of the censor board. They should also be questioned. This film should not have been released at all. The entire film should be banned. The government should immediately put a stop to it,” Chauhan told India Today.in.

Gajendra further slammed Adipurush dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir for being “ignorant” and not acknowledging his fault. “I think Manoj Muntashir has introduced ignorance to the world. He really has no knowledge. He is a lyricist and he was asked to write the dialogues. The dialogues he added to the film were taken from videos of writers that circulate on social media. Like the dialogue by Kumar Vishwas, ‘I will set your Lanka on fire.’ By combining all these, he has presented it as if he has written everything. He is still being stubborn. This arrogance is not right for any artist,” he added.

Earlier, Manoj Muntashir defended the backlash surrounding the Lord Hanuman’s dialogues in the movie by saying that “Bajrangbali is not a God.” “Bajrangbali bhagwaan nahi hai, bhakt hai. Humne unko bhagwaan banaya hai kyuki unki bhakti mein wo power tha (Lord Hanuman is not God but a mere devotee. We made him God because his devotion had that power),” Manoj told Aaj Tak while defending the “oversimplified” dialogues given to Hanuman’s character in the movie. Manoj’s statement left netizens angry.