Adipurush opened last Friday to highly negative reviews all over from both critics and audiences alike. The film is currently sitting at 4.2 on IMDb and 66% on BookMyShow, India's biggest ticket booking app, signifying heavy rejection from the paying public as well. Despite the excellent opening weekend of the film at the box office, the audiences are disappointed with the film due to its historical inaccuracies. One such country to strongly oppose the film is Nepal to the extent that the mayor of the capital city Kathmandu followed by Pokhara decided to halt screenings of all Indian films in the country. This will be harmful to both the Indian film industries and the Nepal box office as Indian films have an audience in the country and they pose as a good source of income for theatres in the country. Why did this happen? Let's find out.
The decision came three days after Mr. Shah gave a strict ultimatum to the Indian makers of Adipurush, urging them to cut or alter a portion where a dialogue refers to Sita as the “daughter of India”.“Three days ago we had called upon the makers of Adipurush to remove the objectionable section that shows Janaki as an Indian woman. Defense of Nepal’s sovereignty, independence, and self-respect is the first duty of all Nepalese governments, non-governmental organizations, and Nepalese citizens. No Indian film will be allowed to be screened in the Kathmandu municipality area till the time this objectionable part is removed from the film,” said Shah
Nepal takes pride itself in its connection to Sita, the female protagonist of the epic Ramayana. Janakpur in Nepal is touted to be the home of Sita where her father King Janak had his kingdom. Because of her roots, Sita is also known as Janaki, the daughter of Janak. The mayor believed that screening these films will damage the national and cultural identity of the country. “If the film is shown as it is, it seems that Nepal’s nationality, cultural unity, and national identity will be severely damaged and irreparable damage will be done. Due to cultural encroachment on Nepal from that movie, this metropolitan city has attracted serious attention" the mayor stated.
Shah wanted the dialogue to be removed outside Nepal as well, sending a letter to the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Film Development Board urging the government to take serious initiatives with India to remove the dialogue in the film's home market as well. The reason for this is that Shah felt that it is a cultural encroachment from India to distort the facts. The ban on Indian films will be in effect till the objectionable dialogue is not removed in India too.
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Things look bleak for Adipurush as the film lost a major market due to this controversy and the generally negative reception of the film will most probably not give it legs for a stable future. The director of the film Om Raut and the dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir have been under fire on the internet due to disrespecting the epic by sexualizing the female characters and giving 'tapori' dialogues to Lord Hanuman. With allegations like these, public support for the film will surely plummet in the coming days.