Hindi and Marathi actor Adinath Kothare recently confirmed that he will portray Bharat in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana. Adinath expressed his happiness in an interview saying that it is one of the biggest films and that he was selected by casting director Mukesh Chhabra.
Adinath said that director Nitesh and producer Namit Malhotra are clear about what they are planning to offer and that they have spent almost ten years in the film’s pre-production.
Although Adinath did not disclose a lot of details about the film’s progress so far, he recalled the time when he read the script, saying that he was “blown away.” He also described it as one of the “finest scripts” he has ever read.
Notably, the script of Ramayana has been written by Shridhar Raghavan, whose involvement is now raising questions about the film’s success. Shridhar’s work as a screenwriter has always received a mixed response and it remains to be seen whether he has been faithful to the source material of Ramayana.
Only a few films written by Shridhar have turned out to be big hits, including Khakee, Dum Maaro Dum, War, and Pathaan. He has also written the upcoming film of the YRF Spy Universe, War 2.
Apart from these, he penned the screenplay for The Night Manager, which attracted a lot of viewership on Hotstar in 2023. Rest of the films written by Shridhar, such as Tiger 3, Yudhra, Bluffmaster, Chandni Chowk to China, and Apaharan, have received an average response.
A lot of money has been invested in the making of Ramayana. Now there is a fear that Shridhar’s involvement might create issues and the film might fail to recover the overall budget.
For now, the first announcement video has managed to create some hype. Meanwhile, the screenplay has to be entertaining enough without taking any cinematic liberties. The first part also has to end at a point that can create excitement among the audience for the second part.
Everything will depend on Shridhar’s screenplay. Maybe we have to wait until the film’s release in Diwali 2026 to have a better idea of whether Shridhar’s writing will be able to attract audiences.
