Mukesh Khanna questions if Ranbir Kapoor can play Rama in ‘Ramayana’ after ‘Animal’

Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, best known for his iconic roles as Shaktimaan and Bhishma Pitamah in ‘Mahabharat’, recently shared his thoughts on Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming ‘Ramayana’ adaptation.

While Khanna is cautiously optimistic about the project, he still has some concerns, especially when it comes to the portrayal of the epic’s central character, Lord Rama.

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Khanna has one major reservation about the adaptation. He was particularly critical of the way Rama comes out in the trailers and teasers, especially when it comes to action scenes that, according to him, don’t align with the traditional image of the character.

“Rama climbing trees and shooting arrows… that’s not what he’s about,” Khanna said in an interview with ‘Galatta India’. “Krishna or Arjuna can do that, but not Rama. He would never ask monkeys for help if he saw himself as a warrior. He was a man on his own, facing Ravana alone.”

While he’s happy with the actor playing Rama, Ranbir Kapoor, Khanna raised an eyebrow over whether the ‘Animal’ star can fully capture the essence of the revered figure.

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“Ranbir is a great actor, no doubt, but he carries a lot of baggage from his last film, ‘Animal’,” Khanna remarked. “The image of him in that film could make it difficult to fully see him as the ‘Maryada Purshottam’, the perfect man, the embodiment of dharma.”

In the interview, Khanna emphasized that while he doesn’t have a personal issue with Kapoor, he wonders if the actor can shake off his previous roles and truly embody the purity and discipline of Rama.

He even went so far as to shoot a two-minute video for social media, explaining his concerns about the adaptation.

However, Khanna’s team later clarified that they had mistakenly informed him that the controversial visuals he was reacting to were AI-generated by YouTubers, not official footage from the film.