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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Kerala activist threatens to stall release of ‘The Mahabharata’: report
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Kerala activist threatens to stall release of ‘The Mahabharata’: report

Member of Kerala-based Hindu nationalistic outfit threatens to stall release of 'The Mahabharata', considered to be India's biggest movie ever under production, unless the film changes its name

Malayalam actor Mohanlal is set to play the central role of Bhima in ‘The Mahabharata’ whose theatre release is slated in early 2020. Photo: AFPPremium
Malayalam actor Mohanlal is set to play the central role of Bhima in ‘The Mahabharata’ whose theatre release is slated in early 2020. Photo: AFP

Bengaluru: A top functionary of a Kerala-based Hindu nationalistic outfit has threatened to stall the theatre release of what is considered to be India’s biggest movie ever under production, titled The Mahabharata, unless the film changes its name, regional reports said.

K.P. Sasikala, president of Hindu Aikya Vedi (Platform for Hindu Unity), on Monday said the Rs1,000-crore movie cannot be named after the epic, as it is not based on Vyasa Mahabharata (a Sanskrit text believed to be an original version of the Indian epic), reported PTI.

Hindu Aikya Vedi is closely associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The production of The Mahabharata was announced recently by its main investor, UAE-based Indian businessman B.R. Shetty, who said it will be a film adaptation of an acclaimed 1984 Malayalam novel Randamoozham (Second Coming, in Malayalam).

The novel, written by Jnanpith Award winner M.T. Vasudevan Nair, is a retelling of the epic through the perspective of Bhima, the second son of the Pandavas. Malayalam actor Mohanlal is set to play the central role of Bhima.

The novel, where the epic is stripped away of its divine nature and is told in a more humane fashion, focussing more on the emotional template, has a classic status in Malayalam.

Sasikala criticised the novel’s portrayal of the epic. “Let me put it in a very simple way. If the film is based on the novel Randamoozham, its name should also be Randamoozham. But if it is named The Mahabharata, it should be based on The Mahabharata penned by Veda Vyasa," PTI quoted her as saying at a function in Thrissur district.

She reportedly asked that why wasn’t the Hollywood movie The Da Vinci Code named The Bible, even though the movie is based on The Bible?

The same logic can be applied for The Mahabharata movie also, she added, said the PTI report. “If it is titled after Mahabharata, it will not reach the theatres," she said.

The two-part movie, to be directed by debut director V.A. Shrikumar Menon, is slated to begin production by September 2018 and a theatre release in early 2020.

As per reports, it will be shot primarily in English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu and will be dubbed into major Indian languages and leading foreign languages.

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Published: 23 May 2017, 01:38 PM IST
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