Hindu mythology has arguably been the most inexhaustible source of inspiration for Indian cinema. In 1912-13, when Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, wrote, directed, edited and processed Raja Harishchandra, based on a Puranic tale of a righteous king, Indian cinema’s long relationship with Hindu mythology was initiated. Phalke continued to draw from the deep and ancient well of Hindu epics as he based many of his films, like Mohini Bhasmasur, Satyavan Savitri, Lanka Dahan, Shri Krishna Janma and Kaliya Mardan, on mythological stories. These texts, brought to life in India through plays, musicals, and dance performances before cinema, were transferred onto film. In later years, when the scope of cinema broadened, the contribution of mythology as the first-ever plot base for Indian films continued. Actors like NTR assumed a God-like stature for their portrayal of mythology-based characters. 

One form in which mythology was used in Hindi cinema was the direct re-telling of the epics in audio-visual form. Stories from Hindu epics came to be repeatedly reproduced. Babubhai Mistry’s Sampoorna Ramayana (1961) and Mahabharat (1965), Chandrakant’s Bajrangbali (1976) and Madhusudan Rao’s Lav Kush (1997) are only a few of the many examples. Ramanand Sagar’s teledrama, Ramayana (1987), became the most-watched tele-series in the world. The popularity of the series was such that Anvil Govil, the actor who played Lord Ram, contested and won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Meerut using that image.

Over the years, Indian filmmakers realised the popularity and reach of epic narratives and started making adaptations where contemporary stories would be told while drawing references to Hindu epics, especially Ramayana and Mahabharata. Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti (2010) depicted the rivalry between two political parties using narrative form and characters inspired by Mahabharata, which is a case in point. This is the second form in which Hindi filmmakers have used mythology as a source.

In the third form of this influence, we see films that are neither direct reproductions of Hindu epics nor new-age renditions but have broader themes, subplots or characters inspired by Hindu mythology. Kabir Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) is an example where the protagonist, as a devout believer, towards the climax of the film, starts exhibiting the characteristics of the deity he worships. Anubhav Sinha’s Shahrukh Khan starer Ra.One (2011) tells the story of a videogame antagonist who escapes the virtual world to enter the real one. Even this ultra-modern villain is based on the immortal Lankan king Ravana’s character from Ramayana.

A disturbing new trend  

In continuation of this tradition, quite a few mythology-based and mythology-inspired films have been made recently. However, a disturbing fourth trend may have started to emerge. At least two recent adaptations of Hindu mythology in Hindi cinema had Muslim villains. Sandeep Vanga Reddy’s 2023 blockbuster film titled ‘Animal’ is probably remembered more for the controversies it generated rather than the film's content. It was heavily criticised for the blatant misogyny of its male characters and its glorification of violence.  Although the film doesn’t use any major Mahabharata references, the larger plot of a broken family brought to war by contested claims over an empire is reminiscent of the Mahabharata’s central storyline. The guilt foregrounded while the main lead fights and eventually kills his enemy/cousin-brother is comparable to Arjuna’s movement of ambiguity before he seeks Krishna’s advice on taking up arms against his brothers. What is intriguing about Animal is that even though it is a story of family conflict, the protagonist’s and antagonist’s sides are of different religions. While Ranbir Kapoor’s (referentially named Arjun) side of the family is an ambiguous mixture of Sikh and Hindu, Bobby Deol and his brothers are Muslim.

Although both sides in the film are shown engaging in an imaginative variety of violent acts in the movie, which led to the movie being criticised for glorifying violence, the violence that the Hindu and Sikh characters perpetrate is visually very different from the violence that Abrar (Bobby Deol’s character) and his gang carry out. While Arjun’s violence is coronated with pumping background music and inspirational folk songs, Abrar’s violent actions are bestial and sickening. The movie’s characters are shown as uber-rich, equipped with the most advanced weapons.  Still, for some reason, the battles between the groups often shift from modern weapons and machine guns to cleavers, knives and axes. Arjun uses an axe when he heroically fights dozens of men all by himself in a scene that takes ‘inspiration’ from a famous action sequence in Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 Korean film Oldman. Abrar’s use of the blade, on the other hand, is much more revolting and uncalled for in the arc of the film. In his introductory scene, Abrar stabs a man who brings him the news of his brother’s death in the eye with a cake knife. The fact that Abrar cannot speak only adds to his presentation as a barbaric animal.

A modern retelling of Ramayana

Similar is the case with the recently released 3rd film in Rohit Shetty’s commercially successful Singham franchise. Unlike Animal, which refers to Mahabharata only occasionally, Singham 3 overtly attempts to be a modern retelling of Ramayana. Each of the significant characters of the film is modelled after characters in the Hindu epic. The protagonist, Bajirao Singham’s wife, is kidnapped by a gangster. To rescue her, Singham is aided by characters played by Ranveer Singh (Hanuman), Tiger Shroff (Lakshman), and Akshay Kumar (Garuda), who enter the impenetrable stronghold of the villain, played by Arjun Kapoor. Surprisingly, given that Ravanna was a devout Brahmin, Arjun Kapoor’s character, a murderous drug lord based in Sri Lanka, is a Muslim named Zubair.

Despite being an internationally feared criminal, whose gang members use expensive cars, machine guns, bazookas and the occasional helicopter, Zubair, in many of the scenes, walks around with an oversized knife in his mouth. This forcible addition of a butcher-like Muslim villain in a film, the plot of which is based on Hindu mythology, would have been challenging to explain had we not been privy to a generally Islamophobic turn that Hindi cinema has taken in the last decade. 

The excessive demonisation of Muslims in Bollywood in the last decade is quite well documented. The heightening of communal tensions in recent times has been cashed in by Hindi filmmakers who have developed an incessant need for Muslim villains in their films. Whether the script allows it or not, filmmakers like Vanga Reddy and Rohit Shetty have proven that the plot can be bent over and around to make sure that the antagonist is a Muslim. While the problematic depiction of Muslims has been a regular feature in Indian cinema in the past decade, the penetration of the purely commercial populist logic for a Muslim villain has, probably for the first time, percolated into cinematic renditions of Hindu epics.

(The author is a  PhD scholar and teaching assistant at Shiv Nadar University, India. Views are personal. He can be contacted at bt852@snu.edu.in )