Adipurush, starring Prabhas and Kriti Sanon as a version of Ram and Sita, failed to pass the Monday test despite a strong first weekend at the box office. Om Raut's VFX-heavy retelling of the Ramayan recorded a drop of 78% in earnings on Day 4 with Box Office India reporting Monday's collections at Rs 7.75 crore net. This takes the film's net earnings to Rs 113 crore (from Rs 105 crore at the end of Sunday). The controversies Adipurush is currently mired in appears to have caught up at the box office. Audiences in the Hindi belt came to see one Ramayan and got to see a completely different one, according to Box Office India.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh did not sugarcoat his verdict. "The negative word of mouth has come into play. After a strong opening weekend, Adipurush collapses on Monday," he tweeted.
THE NEGATIVE WORD OF MOUTH HAS COME INTO PLAY…
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) June 19, 2023
After a strong opening weekend, #Adipurush COLLAPSES on Monday.#Hindi version. #India biz. pic.twitter.com/HJT4hHT80u
Even before release, the VFX in Adipurush attracted criticism. After it released last Friday, reactions were brutal – as much for its depiction of events in the Ramayan as for the dialogues, more street than mythic. Lines spoken by actor Devdatta Nage as Bajrang or Hanuman were singled out for coruscation. Over the weekend, dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir tweeted a long defence of the lines he had written but also announced that the makers had decided to revise some of the dialogue.
Adipurush opened to uniformly poor reviews though some performances were praised. The cast of the film comprises of Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh or Ravan, Sunny Singh as Shesh or Lakshman, and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang.
