Ashish who has worked as a film editor on projects like ‘Dharavi Bank, ‘Gandhi Talks’, a few Marathi films, and now ‘Adipurush’, opened up about the entire criticism that the team faced, the film’s approach, what the audience can expect from the film and much more.
“The entire team was in shock when the teaser was released as we never expected such kind of reviews, but director Om Raut’s vision was very clear. When he explained the film to us along with the characters, he was very clear about what he wanted in the film. He had taken care of all those aspects of the story that might hurt the sentiments of the people. He never wanted to do that but he just changed the world and he has made it in a way that will appeal to the youth,” revealed Ashish.
“Maybe whatever we wanted to convey failed to reach the audience,” he added. “There are two possibilities – one is that the world that we created was not expected by the audience as they are used to seeing Ram and Sita in that old monotonous looks and were expecting that ‘Adipurush’ will be on similar lines. The second reason could be that the majority of the people didn’t see the 3D version of the teaser, they just saw it on their mobile phones. So when some of the people saw the teaser again in 3D, they changed their views and also agreed that watching the teaser on mobile gave them a different notion. Many of them took back their words and reviews after watching the 3D version of the teaser.”
When asked about the changes the team made after getting negative feedback, Ashish explained how a VFX film is made. “There are many aspects of a VFX film that are decided during post-production like there are different layouts that are decided, animation, and this is the first film of my career that is even using motion capture technology, which is not very easy. It needs a lot of detailing that the audience will see in the making of the film, these are time-consuming,” he said.
However, Ashish maintained that they have not made any major changes to the film. “We have not made any alterations in the film post the criticism, we did the film which was planned already. We did some changes whenever a demand came for any particular scene but otherwise, there have been no major changes in the film. We are following the same way from where we started the film because we have not made any mistake in the first place, that needs rectification.”
Kriti Sanon and Prabhas will be seen as Sita and Lord Rama in the film and their pairing is highly praised by the audience, so much so that they are even rumoured to be dating each other. Ashish too is impressed with them and said, “I just cannot explain how beautiful they look onscreen. There are many emotional scenes that the audience will connect with and Kriti and Prabhas just make it look even more appealing.”
With an increased VFX budget and a lot of criticism that the film has already received, how is the team planning to bring the audience to theatres? “All I can say is till the time people do not come to see the film in the theatre, they will not come to know the world we have created. We just cannot explain it in words, it has to be experienced in the theatres. People have seen Ramayan on TV at a time when there were too many restrictions. So here in ‘Adipurush’, they will see the characters which are real and showcased beyond imagination, there is also an emotional connection with each and every character, which is what I feel will bring the audience to the theatre. For example, when Bajrangbali will bring Sanjeevani to Ram, the audience will experience it visually. In normal films or TV shows, we take too many liberties to shoot such kinds of scenes. But in VFX, we show it in a more realistic way that will not look fake,” Ashish beamed with confidence.
Work on Adipurush began in 2020 and Ashish has been working on this project for the past three years. “Though now the work is at a different level, maybe because of Lord Rama’s blessings, I never felt bored or stressed at all,” he said. “The story is the same but the approach is different and displayed in a more realistic way. The world is different because even now when we see some scenes on repeat, we get goosebumps. Such is the impact that the audience will get to experience. While we are trying hard to make the film, we cannot stop the audience from criticising. Neither are we blaming or worrying about who will say what. We are just making the film the way we imagined. I am sure when people watch ‘Adipurush’ in the theatre, they will change their minds. One cannot judge the entire film in just 90 seconds of a teaser,” Ashish concluded.
