Nitish Tiwari’s directorial Ramayana, starring Ranbir Kapoor, has landed in a controversy after its trailer was released recently.

Actor Ranbir Kapoor is portraying Ram in the film Ramayana

Arjun Kumar, president of Shri Ramlila Mahasangh and Lav Kush Ramlila, Old Delhi, has written a letter to the makers for a special screening before its theatrical release. It said the demand is to ensure that no scenes or dialogues hurt religious sentiments and they warned of protests if its request is not considered.

Kumar tells HT City, “In this new film’s trailer, there is no emotion visible in Sri Ram. How can Shri Ram, who always lived with dignity, be shown taking a pledge and getting angry to kill someone! Also, the same actor, Ranbir Kapoor, is promoting sale of land in Ayodhya in a commercial advertisement and here he is portraying Shri Ram. Will Ram ever sell Ayodhya’s land?”

He added, “We have been staging Ramayana for around 50 years now and do not feel the dresses used in the film’s trailer are suitable to portray Ramayana characters. We have objections to all these things that could be rejected by the viewers after the film releases.”

He also gave the example of Adipurush (2023), which Prabhas promoted in their Ramlila, but later there were major objections over Mughal-era figures, costume, and portrayal of Lanka.

“Our reason to ask the makers to show us the film before releasing is when the film Baahubali came out recently, Prabhas was its star and the worship of Lord Shiva in it was done in such a way that it was praised by everyone. After that, Prabas's Adipurush came and we invited him to promote the film at our Ramlila at Red Fort grounds, thinking that the film will be a very beautiful picture of Adipurush Lord Ram,” he clarified.

On problems that started after the release, he says, “The film showed golden Lanka as black Lanka made of coal and even the Ramayana were dressed in costumes that apparently used leather like how the Mughals wore. That hurt people's sentiments and hence the picture flopped even though it was a mega budget film.”

The organisation clarified that they are not talking about giving any certificate to it, but “we will ask for certain scenes to be removed if any of these hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus globally”. “We are making the demand to see the film before release because it should not flop like the ones made on Ramayana before it because if films made on a great book like Ramayana flop again and again, thena negative message goes through it to the society because our films are watched not only in India but globally,” he added.

We contacted the makers but their PR team said that they are yet to make any statement on the request made by Ramlila committees.

The organisation warned that if the filmmakers do not arrange the requested screening, Shri Ramlila Mahasangh, along with various Hindu organisations, will stage protests and demonstrations outside cinema halls in Delhi and other states.