Adipurush teaser fallout, VFX to be changed

Heads have begun to roll at the creative end of Om Raut’s DOA (dud on arrival) mythological Adipurush. The film’s reliable sources say it’s going into heavy special-effects revamp. “Prasad Sutar who designed the special effects in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani and Gangubai Kathiawadi became over-ambitious. He has turned producer with Adipurush . The computer graphics were all done in haste. The entire film was shot in front of a green screen,” informs a knowledgeable source. Interestingly, on the days leading up to the release of the teaser Adipurush’s co-producer Bhushan Kumar was so confident of the product that he told his friends he would be releasing Adipurush in multiple languages all across the world as the quintessential Ramayan. They were also planning a sequel to Adipurush which we can now comfortably kiss goodbye to, now after the brutal backlash. Quite easily Adipurush is the most trolled film teaser in the history of Indian cinema. Prabhas ’ team swung into damage-control action in no time at all. As soon as the savage trolls against the teaser were triggered off, the marketing team leaked out stories on Prabhas’ dedication and hero-worshipping fan base, when in actuality there are stories from behind the scene—or should I say behind the screen, as most of the film has apparently been shot on a green screen—of how much struggle he had to go through with the avoirdupois.

In fact, one of the major issues with the film was Prabhas’ knee which he had badly injured during the making of Baahubali. The sequences requiring agility in Adipurush had to be worked around the knee and the consequent weight gain, as Prabhas was not allowed rigorous exercises. The team decided to get rid of the extra weight at the post-production stage. This seems to have not happened. Sadly the director instead of taking the blame and responsibility has gone into the defence mode. He is quoted as saying “I was disheartened for sure, not surprised because the film is made for a larger medium—the big screen. You can cut it down to some extent but can’t bring it down to a mobile phone. That’s an environment I can’t control. Given a choice, I’d never put it on YouTube but that’s the need of the hour. We need to put it there so that it reaches a wide audience. My partner and the studio (T-Series) is the largest YouTube channel in the world. This film does require audience that comes to cinema halls very rarely — primarily the senior citizen generation that doesn’t come to cinemas, or people from remote locations who don’t have access to theaters. We need those people to come and see the film because it’s Ramayana…We need to reach a wider audience and get them excited. So, as I said, I was not surprised because it’s not made for smaller screens. It’s made for a larger screen and I can’t consume it on a smaller screen.” Raut had no explanation for why teaser trailers VFX-driven films like Avatar, Baahubali and RRR worked on YouTube, or why the 3D teaser trailer of Adipurush in a movie theatre has also been met with shock and disbelief. One wonders what happens now to the 450-crore budgeted film, since fine-tuning the VFX won’t work. And what happens to Madhu Mantena’s proposed Rs 700-crore Ramayan with Ranbir Kapoor as Rama and Hrithik Roshan as Raavan? Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .