Mukhesh Khanna’s statements have been creating a lot of buzz recently, and his controversial comments have made headlines over the last few weeks. Not only that, netizens were in two minds about the actor playing the role of Shaktimaan yet again; while some were thrilled for the sake of nostalgia, others thought that he was “too old” to resume his role as the superhero. Coming back to his controversial comments, he made comments on Sonakshi Sinha earlier, and now his comment on Ranbir Kapoor is going viral.
In a recent interview with Mid-Day, Khanna expressed his disdain about Ranbir portraying the role of Lord Ram in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana. The actor spoke about how all the negative roles that Ranbir has played, for instance, in ‘Animal’, could influence the audience’s minds when they see the actor playing the character of Lord Ram on screen.
When asked about what he thought about Ranbir playing the character of Lord Ram, Mukesh Khanna was initially extremely hesitant about making a comment on it. However, he then went on to say, “I won’t say anything about this; if I do, they’ll accuse me of commenting about everyone and everything. They’ve ruined my reputation. I recently commented about Jackie Shroff’s son… I’m not rude, but I speak my mind. If they’re making a Ramayana, comparisons with Arun Govil will be inevitable.”
Khanna was then asked which actor, according to him, could play the role of Lord Ram on screen, to which he yet again made comparisons with how well Arun Govil did in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan. He called Govil’s performance “the gold standard.”
The Shaktimaan actor said, “What Arun Govil did with the role has become the gold standard. All I can say is that whoever plays Ram must embody Ram; he shouldn’t look like Raavan. In their real life, if they are a (lampat chhichhora) lewd hooligan, then it will show on screen. If you’re playing Ram, you’re not allowed to party and drink. But who am I to decide who plays Ram?”
Khanna reminded everyone that earlier Prabhas had played the role of Lord Ram but was not well accepted by the audience even though he is an extremely popular actor. He said that the primary reason for that could be the fact that these actors do not look like Lord Ram.
The actor mentioned, “He wasn’t accepted by the public, despite being such a huge star. Not because he’s a bad actor, but because he doesn’t look like Ram… The actor playing Ram now is the beacon of the Kapoor family. He’s a fine actor… But I will look at his face, and he should look like Ram. He’s just done Animal, and his negative personality was highlighted in that movie. I hope that doesn’t disturb this…”
Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana is a much-anticipated film that not only stars Ranbir Kapoor but also stars Sai Pallavi as Sita. There are rumours that Arun Govil too will be a part of the film along with Lara Dutta and even Sunny Deol, but the makers have not confirmed it yet. The film will be releasing in Diwali 2026, and a second part might come out in Diwali 2027.