Since the theatrical release of Adipurush on the 16th of June, the movie has been at the center of the storm. Even after getting a massive opening day worldwide collection of Rs 140 crore, the movie revenues have only seen a downward trajectory with estimated worldwide collections of Rs 100 crore and Rs 62 crore on its second and third days.
This sharp decline was registered on its opening weekend when it’s generally the reverse case. So, why is it that despite the strong initial buzz, the film has lost its fiz and may end up struggling to achieve the break-even point? Mind you, the film is reportedly made with a humongous budget of Rs 700 crore.
Apparently, fans, movie critics, and social media users have registered strong protests citing a plethora of glaring mistakes, crass dialogues attributed to religious characters and ‘cheap’, distasteful VFX in the much-hyped movie.
However, instead of dousing the fire, Adipurush’s dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir aggravated the controversy by making one bizarre statement after the other.
Speaking with Republic, he defended the controversial dialogues used in the movie claiming that a “meticulous thought process” has gone into writing the dialogues of Bajrangbali.
"Meticulous thought process has gone into writing the dialogues of Bajrangbali"
— Shandilya Rājaputra (@ShandilyaRjapu1) June 17, 2023
"Ramayan (Yuddha Kanda) is an action film"
Dhanya ho @manojmuntashir 🙏 pic.twitter.com/Y5st4qYGGZ
While speaking with Aaj Tak, he said, “Bajrang Bali is not God, he is a devotee. We made him God after seeing his devotion.”
बजरंग बली भगवान नहीं हैं भक्त हैं| हमने उनको भगवान बनाया बाद में उनकी भक्ति देखकर: मनोज मुंतशिर pic.twitter.com/shL443ueOH
— Shubhankar Mishra (@shubhankrmishra) June 19, 2023
Viral videos highlighting his past statements
Amid all of this, several old videos of the popular lyricist are doing rounds on the internet. In one such video, the Adipurush dialogue writer is seen explaining the back story behind choosing the Urdu pen name ‘Muntashir’.
The video thumbnail attributes Manoj Shukla saying, “I became Muntashir from Shukla and it changed me immediately. Whenever my father chanted Shiv Stotra, I would sing Rasool Allah.”
"To counter my father's Shiv Stotra, I used to sing IsIamic verses – Manoj Muntashir"
— Mr Sinha (@MrSinha_) June 20, 2023
No wonder he wrote that creepy dialogues in #Adipurush. pic.twitter.com/waSEfGj2l8
Well, the shared video clip is part of an interactive session between Bollywood’s lyricist Manoj Muntashir and the Jashn-e-Rekta host which is still out there on their official youtube channel.
Manoj Shukla said, “Muntashir is my pen name. How I adapted it is an interesting story. Being a poet, I needed a takhallus (pen name), but was not happy with the most popular and oft-used ones like ‘Sagar’, ‘Sahir’ or ‘Kaafir’.”
He adds, “So when I was in Class 10, I started hunting for a unique pen name. One evening, while I was walking down my sleepy hometown of Amethi, I overheard a couplet playing on a radio set at a tea stall: Muntashir hum hain to rukhsaar pe shabnam kyun hai, Aaine toot-te rahte hain tumhe gham kyun hai. I just loved the word ‘muntashir’, which meant ‘scattered’.”
He further adds, “In a split second, Manoj’s journey from ‘Shukla’ to ‘Muntashir’ was complete. The best part is that I am the only Muntashir who has ever existed in the world of poetry. So to date, my pen name stands unique.”
Later in the same video, he shared an anecdotal story related to his pen name. He stated that when on one side his father (a Pandit/Pujari by profession) would chant Shiv Stotra, he would sing Khayale ger ko dil se mita de ya Rasool Allah.”
No weight (Vajan) in Shukla
In another viral video, Manoj Muntashir again re-iterates his backstory of desperately finding a unique pen name. He was Manoj Shukla and he claims that Shukla has no weight (vajan), as per his Urdu poetic taste so he adopted the Urdu pen name Muntashir.
अजीत भैया ये वीडियोज देखिए @manojmuntashir के … शुक्ला होने पर इसे शर्म आती है वजन नही लगता इसलिए मुंतसिर बन गया.प्रयागराज से ज्यादा प्रिय इसे इलाहबाद है।#ManojMuntashirShukla इस व्यक्ति को कारगार में बंद होना चाहिए इसने जान बूझकर हमारे देवी देवताओं पूर्वजों का मजाक बनाया है pic.twitter.com/TdZxndiQq4
— शून्य (@Shunyaa00) June 19, 2023
The said interaction where he shared his insight into the weightless surname Shukla is part of a larger interaction still available on the official youtube channel of Magic 106.4 FM Mumbai.
In his interaction with Jashn-e-rekhta, Urdu fanboy Manoj Muntashir talked about the “need” to know Urdu for making a mark in the Hindi film Industry colloquial known as Bollywood. The interaction explains why Sanskritised Hindi has slowly become obsolete from Bollywood movies.
