Sunil Lahri who played Lakshman in ‘Ramayan’ series unimpressed by Prabhas’ ‘Adipurush’; says VFX was ‘difficult to digest’ – Times of India

Echoing the sentiments of fans, Lahri, said that it was difficult for him to ‘digest’ the VFX in the Prabhas and Saif Ali Khan starrer. In his latest interview, Sunil drew comparisons with his old television show and pointed out that there were no ‘cartoonish effects’ or ‘mockery’.

Speaking to DNA, Sunil said that while he was shooting for ‘Ramayan’, the film crew was new to technology and hence tried to achieve the best output with the maximum effort. “That’s why people still appreciated it even 35 years after its release. The young generation doesn’t feel that the show had ‘cartoonish’ (effects), or made a mockery out of that,” he explained.

While weighing in on the possibility of the tech being available to Ramanand in the ’80s, he said, “then maybe he would have made something else, or something better”.

He also said that filmmakers today do not want to take any effort and prefer to stick to presets. Commending his team for their dedication, he revealed that a scene of Hanuman carrying Ram and Laxman on his shoulders took 4 days to shoot.

‘Ramayan’ was created, written, and directed by Ramanand Sagar and ruled television between 1987 and 1988. Arun Govil essayed the role of Ram, Deepika Chikhalia played Sita, Arvind Trivedi played Ravana and Dara Singh played Hanuman.

Lahri’s reactions come in after fans were seemingly left unimpressed by the first teaser of ‘Adipurush’. While some poked fun at the VFX shots, others slammed the makers for the Islamification of the Ramayan and some political leaders even threatened legal action against the depictions of certain characters in the film.

However, Om Raut defended his film and insisted that it was made for the big screen and that the compressed YouTube version of the trailer did not do it justice.