Almost six months after he stoked the controversy over ‘Adipurush’ with his statements, lyricist-writer Manoj Muntashir has apologised for the dialogues he wrote for the film.
Speaking at an event on Saturday evening on ‘Sabme Base So Ram Kahaye’ at Bhartendu Natya Academy, Muntashir said: “Woh sarfiri andhi thi, sambhalna pada; main aakhiri chiraag tha, jalna pada (It was a maddening storm, I had to adjust; I was the last lamp, I had to light up).”
The debate moved from Ram to the dialogues of Prabhas and Kriti Sanon-starrer Adipurush that had caught him in the eye of a storm.
Facing tough questions on what had made him write the controversial dialogues, Muntashir took the opportunity to ask for public forgiveness and not judge his abilities and 25 years of work based on one instance.
“There is no better place than Lucknow, the capital of the state where Ram was born and also the land that is the ink and blood of my writings, to seek an apology for that mistake. With all humility, I accept that even though our intentions were pious, we got carried away and did not realise that it would not be taken kindly by the people,” Muntashir said.
He claimed that as a writer, his hands were bound by the screenplay that left him little room for course correction.
He went on to defend the director and producers of the movie and said: “Within two days of the release, we made sure that we corrected our mistakes. We rewrote the dialogues and replaced the objectionable ones. Overnight, 10,000 prints were altered.”
The discussion gradually moved toward the root of the problem—the shrinking space for quality lyrics and writing in movies, and songs losing depth and gravitas with which they once captivated the imagination of the audiences.
Muntashir accepted that songwriting has become insipid. He, however, said that a few writers are still committed to upholding the legacy of Anand Bakshi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, and Kaifi Azmi.
“That is the reason I took over a decade to get the space for writing my first movie song. I could not betray the legacy of Lucknow which has been a fertile soil that has raised ace artists, writers, and literary personalities. I wanted to write something that makes my land feel proud,” he said.