RRR and Adipurush: adaptation of the Ramayana in Pan-Indian Cinema and circulation of Hindu Nationalism

Abstract The article aims to explicate S. S. Rajamouli’s period film RRR: Rise Roar Revolt (2022) and Om Raut’s mythological film Adipurush (2023). The first film is a loose adaptation of the smriti epic Ramayana , whereas the latter one claims to stay faithful to the medieval bard Valmiki’s version of the epic. The research paper argues that both are pan-Indian films, a phenomenon inaugurated with Rajamouli’s 2015 fantasy film Baahubali: The Beginning . It asserts that pan-Indian film is not a new genre, rather it is an updated version of Indian popular cinema which experiments with representation and distribution strategies. It emerges during the uncertain time when Bollywood fails to produce box office hits and audiences develop antipathy towards this industry because of a few notorious incidents. The article argues that both films adapt select sections of the epic and glorify Rama to articulate Hindu nationalism, an ideology which has its roots in the early twentieth-century Indian freedom struggle and it aims to remind the glorious Hindu past in order to protect the Hindu nation. Rajamouli’s adaptation of the Ramayana endorses the spirit of Hindu nationalism by reminding the glorious past of Hindus, which is believed to be described in the epic. On the other hand, using the genre of mythological and disseminating Islamophobia, Adipurush becomes an instrument of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The article contends that these adaptations of the epic in pan-Indian films are vehicles of the right-wing politics for spreading Hindu nationalism to the global audiences.