Manoj Muntashir calls it '100% mistake' to defend Adipurush: Learned a lot from this accident

Adipurush poster, Manoj Muntashir

Prabhas, Kriti Sanon and Saif Ali Khan's Adipurush was subjected to negative reviews and extreme backlash for the dialogues. Directed by Om Raut, the mythological drama was slammed by the audience for the 'degrading' dialogues said by key characters, primarily Bajrang (played by Devdatta Nage). Veteran lyrics and writer Manoj Muntashir stepped up in defense of his film and sparked a major controversy.

Now, 5 months after Adipurush's release, Manoj regretted defending the film upon release and writing the dialogues. In an interview with Aaj Tak, the writer called it his mistake and said, "Yes 100 percent, there is no doubt about it. I am not such an insecure person that I would defend my writing skills by saying that I have written well. Hey, it's a hundred percent mistake. But when a mistake was made, there was no bad intention behind that mistake. I had absolutely no intention of hurting the religion and causing trouble to Sanatan or to defame Lord Ram or to say something about Hanuman ji which is not there. I would never even think of doing that. What I mean to say is that a big mistake has been made and I have learned a lot from this accident and it was a great learning process. I will be very careful from now on. But it does not mean that we will stop talking about ourselves."

He further shared how the controversy affected him and nobody is immune to hate. "You are a human being, not a stone, not a corpse, everything makes a difference to you. You also like receiving love but when stones are thrown at you, you will be hurt. You have to learn to deal with it. I never thought there would be this kind of reaction. Nobody thinks this way. The film was made with very good intentions. If we are investing Rs 600 crore in this film, then it is obvious that everyone wants it to be the best. Who would want to end our career by making this film? Obviously, we had no agenda behind this. Things just kept getting worse, he added.

Manoj also shared that he shouldn't have defended Adipurush when his audience was disappointed. "I feel that when things were going on so loudly, I should not have given clarification at that time. This was my biggest mistake. I should not have spoken at that time. If people are angry with this, then their anger is justified. Because that was not the time to clarify and today I understand that mistake," he said.

The dialogue that received severe backlash was when Devdatta Nage as Lord Hanuman said, "Kapda tere baap ka, aag tere baap ki, tel tere baap ka, jalegi bhi teri baap ki." Due to criticism, the makers modify the dialogue along with a few couple more.