Lyricist Anantha Sriram's criticism of Prabhas' Kalki 2898 AD at a recent Vishwa Hindu Parishad rally has attained online virality. Social media has been witness to English-language translations of his utterances against the Nag Ashwin directorial, among other movies.
In his speech, Sriram opined that the glorification of a compromised character like Karna from the Mahabharata is nothing but a misrepresentation of Hinduism. He called upon Hindus to boycott movies that distort the religion.
Sriram, one of the most sought-after lyric writers, spoke out against a few other films/popular songs. Since Kalki 2898 AD featured three major actors (Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone) and was a huge money-spinner, the attention has been on this particular portion of his speech.
When Kalki 2898 AD was released in theatres last year, spiritual preceptors such as Garikapati Narasimha Rao questioned the portrayal of Karna as someone superior to Arjuna. Anantha Sriram is the first person from the Telugu film industry to call out the film on these grounds. Aamir Khan's PK was also mentioned by Sriram.
