Mukesh Khanna rejects Sai Pallavi’s sword-wielding Sita, tells Ramayana makers: ‘You should feel ashamed'

A sword-wielding Sita has become the most debated image from Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, and now one of television’s most recognisable mythological faces has joined the argument. Mukesh Khanna, remembered by a generation as Bhishma in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, has accused the makers of the Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi film of rewriting a sacred text, and of caring more about money than faithfulness.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Khanna focused on scenes in which Sai Pallavi’s Sita fights off demons. He said he went back to the source text to verify them.

“People have objected to Sita fighting like the Rani of Jhansi. In the film, she is fighting 2-3 monsters; I cross-checked this in Valmiki’s Ramayana, and this is not there in it. From what I know, Maa Sita never fought. She was never a fighter; had she been one, she would have fought with Ravana when he tried to abduct her. How did he manage to abduct her just like that?”

Khanna also took issue with the producer’s explanation for the sequence. According to Khanna, the producer said the scene came from the Adbhut Ramayana, a later retelling, and not from Valmiki’s text. Khanna did not accept that reasoning.

“What shocked me was that I saw a post where the producer justified the scene and said that the scene was not taken from Valmiki’s Ramayana, but from another book called Adbhuth Ramayana. There was only one original Ramayana, which was written by Valmiki; whatever is written in it, you cannot go two steps ahead of it. People have written different versions of the Ramayana only for entertainment, not to make a film on it,” he said.

“I want to ask: where did he get the scene of Maa Sita fighting from, and why did he put it in the film?” he added.

He also compared the filmmakers to Ekta Kapoor, whose version of the Mahabharat changed the character of Satyavati. “We have grown up watching that; how can you put a new scene about Maa Sita in that? You should feel ashamed,” he said.

Sai Pallavi has described the warrior portrayal differently. In a conversation with comedian Zarna Garg, she said the action was choreographed to flow more like dance than combat.

“When it came to fighting with a sword, I did have to take some practice. We had great stunt directors. They wanted to make it look more like a dance, where it looks like a princess who is floating through with her swords. It was an interesting process,” she said. “We all grew up watching a different version of Sita Maa. So to have this for this generation felt really good.”

The debate does not appear to be hurting ticket sales. Industry tracker Sacnilk reports that Ramayana Part 1 earned Rs 663.90 crore worldwide in its first five days. In India, its Monday total stood at Rs 346.35 crore net, or Rs 413.90 crore gross.

The film is produced by Namit Malhotra. Ranbir Kapoor plays Lord Rama and Yash plays Ravana. The cast also includes Ravi Dubey as Lakshman, Arun Govil as King Dashrath, Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi, Indira Krishnan as Kaushalya and Rakul Preet Singh as Surpanakha. Sunny Deol is teased as Hanuman ahead of his full role in the second part. That sequel was originally planned for next Diwali and has now been moved to 2028.