'Maa Sita Was Never A Fighter': Mukesh Khanna Criticises Ramayana For Distorting Representation Of Sai Pallavi's Sita

Mukesh Khanna has criticised Ranbir Kapoor, Yash and Sai Pallavi-starrer Ramayana Part One for what he called a distorted depiction of Sita. He also accused the makers of prioritising the recovery of the film’s reported ₹4,000 crore budget over telling the story faithfully.

What Mukesh Khanna said about Ramayana Part One

Khanna, who played Bhisham Pitamah in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, criticised Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana in a YouTube vlog. He said he has not seen the film yet and is relying on the promos and reviews he has seen so far.

Khanna objected to Maa Sita being shown as a warrior, which he claimed departs from Valmiki’s Ramayana.

Khanna’s Ramayana objections

Khanna directly questioned the use of creative liberty in a mythological epic.

“I want to ask Hindi filmmakers: is it fair to distort facts mentioned in Valmiki’s Ramayana and go beyond it to show your vision. Ever since the Ramayana was released, it has stirred a debate on social media and amongst the YouTubers. Everyone is reviewing the film, and no one is sure how much the film will earn. But here, the main agenda has been about recovering the budget of ₹4,000 crore, not about telling the story most authentically,” he said in his vlog.

Objecting to scenes that show Sita fighting, Khanna said, “People have objected to Sita fighting like the Rani of Jhansi. In the film, she is fighting 2-3 monsters; I cross-checked this in Valmiki’s Ramayana, and this is not there in it. From what I know, Maa Sita never fought; she was never a fighter; had she been one, she would have fought with Ravana when he tried to abduct her. How did he manage to abduct her just like that?”

Khanna also referred to a post that, according to him, cited Adbhuth Ramayana to justify the scene.

“What shocked me was that I saw a post where the producer justified the scene and said that the scene was not taken from Valmiki’s Ramayana, but from another book called Adbhuth Ramayana. There was only one original Ramayana, which was written by Valmiki; whatever is written in it, you cannot go two steps ahead of it,” he said, claiming that people have written different versions of the epic only for entertainment and not to make a film on it.

”Can the producer fabricate the Quran or the Bible? If not, then how dare he fabricate the Ramayana? I want to ask: where did he get the scene of Maa Sita fighting from, and why did he put it in the film?” Khanna questioned.

“We have grown up watching that; how can you put a new scene about Maa Sita in that? You should feel ashamed,” he added.

Sai Pallavi on playing Sita

Earlier, in a chat with comedian Zarna Garg, when Sai Pallavi was asked about Sita being shown as a warrior princess, she said, “When it came to fighting with a sword, I did have to take some practice. We had great stunt directors. They wanted to make it look more like a dance, where it looks like a princess who is floating through with her swords,” and called it an “interesting process”.