Adipurush's fortunes at the box office continued to dip on Tuesday with earnings between Rs 4.75-5 crore net, reports Box Office India. Day 5's numbers fell 35% as compared to ticket sales on Day 4 (Monday) which itself recorded a fall of 78% from Sunday's earnings. Box Office India describes this as a "huge downward spiral" and blames it on the hurt sentiments of a large chunk of the audience the Om Raut-directed film was targeting. Some cinemas in conservative areas reported zero collections which could mean that the film has been pulled from screens. Adipurush's current net total at the end of Day 5 is about Rs 117 crore, per Box Office India. The trade tracker predicts that Adipurush's box office business to come will be from multiplexes.
Adipurush, a retelling of some events in the Ramayana, has been mired in controversy ever since it released last Friday. The film stars Prabhas as Raghav (Ram), Kriti Sanon as Janaki (Sita), Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Ravan), Sunny Singh as Shesh (Lakshman), and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang. The film's break with tradition in its depiction of a revered epic has triggered many and much of the criticism has been focused on the street-style dialogues, particularly some spoken by Devdatta Nage as Bajrang. Last weekend, dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir revealed that the makers had decided to revise some of the lines.
Prem Sagar, son of Ramanand Sagar who made the iconic TV series of the Ramayana, told news agency ANI, "Manoj Muntashir is well-informed about Hinduism. I don't understand how he even conceived such dialogues in the film. It might be a misjudgement that the younger generation would like it. But you can't do this with the audience. Don't say it is based on Valmiki Ramayan, give it any other name. Make it a 'fantasy' film. But if you're making Ramayan then you cannot hurt the sentiments. People watch this with devotion."
"I don't even want to watch the film. Ravan was very knowledgeable and you are blackening the golden Lanka (sone ki Lanka), and his look with 5 heads up and 5 heads down," he added.
Actress Dipika Chikhlia, who played Sita in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana, told PTI, "Every time it is going to come back on screen, be it for TV or movie, it is going to have something which is going to hurt people because you are not going to make a replica of the Ramayana that we made."
"Ramayana is not (for) entertainment value; it is something that you learn from. It is a book which is being passed down to us by generations and this is what our 'sanskars' (values) are all about," she continued, adding that she had not seen Adipurush yet.