‘After Ramayan, will Ranbir Kapoor be accepted again in a film like Animal?‘
IMAGE: Ranbir Kapoor as Ram and Sai Pallavi as Sita in Ramayana.
Key Points
- Shiv Sagar, Ramanand Sagar’s grandson, finds it difficult to accept Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Ram due to his recent role in Animal.
- He suggests a ‘fresh face’ would be more suitable for the role of Ram to avoid ‘baggage’ from previous characters.
- Sagar acknowledges Ranbir Kapoor is a good actor and understands the marketing reasons behind his casting.
producer-director Shiv Sagar — whosse grandfather filmmaker Ramanand Sagar made the 1980s television epic Ramayan — expressed displeasure with Ranbir Kapoor’s casting in Nitesh Tiwari’s film Ramayana.
Shiv Sagar said he finds it hard to ‘accept’ Ranbir as Lord Ram after his morally complex role in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal.
“Except for that one casting, I like the rest of the casting very much,” Shiv Sagar says.
“Personally, I cannot accept Ranbir Kapoor as Ram after Animal. When I look at Ramji, a fresh face should have been taken. You can take a very strong supporting cast, like Yash is looking very good, Sai Pallavi is looking very good, they don’t have that baggage. He has a lot of baggage. That’s why we usually take a new face in our serials, so they don’t have any baggage or history,” adds Shiv Sagar.
Ramanand Sagar’s television series Ramayan was watched ardently by people all across India in the late 1980s.
‘People are a bit more touchy and emotional’
IMAGE: Sai Pallavi as Sita, Ranbir Kapoor as Ram and Ravie Dubey as Lakshman in Ramayana.
“We have seen Ranbir in different roles; he is a very good actor. Personally, I don’t have anything against him. I think they must have taken him for the project because they want a marketing push. Maybe if they didn’t take Ranbir, the film wouldn’t have been marketed so well. But I personally believe that for such characters, it’s better to take a new face,” the Kaakbhushundi Ramayan producer elaborated.
“After Ramayan, will he be accepted again in a film like Animal? When it comes to Ramji and Ramayana, people are a bit more touchy and emotional. And this is not mythology. In the West, we call it mythology; even in India, it is called mythology. But this is our history. People worship them every day; he (Ram) is our history.”
Shiv Sagar also believes that despite his personal opinions, the final verdict of the film is in the hands of the public.
“In reality, the public is the king, and whatever the public says will be the final verdict. I didn’t like the casting and costumes of some parts; that could have been better,” said Shiv Sagar.
Meanwhile, a three-generation-old dream of the Sagar family has finally taken shape with the completion of a Ram temple in Maharashtra’s Karjat, a deeply emotional milestone for a family whose name has been inseparably associated with Lord Ram and Ramayana for decades.
The project was originally envisioned by Ramanand Sagar and advanced by his son Prem Sagar before coming to fruition under his grandson Shiv Sagar.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
