A lavish mythological epic savaged by critics and embarrassed at the box office emerges victorious against the odds on Netflix

Bombastic fantasy blockbusters are all the rage on streaming, but Adipurush still had to shake off the stench of a disastrous theatrical run before finally managing to convince audiences to give it a chance on Netflix.

One of the most expensive Indian movies of all-time with a budget estimated to be as high as $90 million, the retelling of Sanskrit epic Ramayana was a massive gamble on the part of the producers. However, based on nothing but the numbers, it wasn’t one that paid off.

Brutalized by critics upon its release this past June, Adipurush was savaged for its wooden acting, unconvincing CGI, stilted dialogue, and complete failure to achieve its goal of doing justice to one of the most important stories ever told. Failing to recoup its massive budget from multiplexes, it ended up as a flop of ironically epic proportions.

A seven percent Rotten Tomatoes score rubbed further salt into the wound, although a current user average of 62 percent on the aggregation site hints that maybe crowds are willing to cut it substantially more slack. That would certainly appear to be the case anyway, seeing as Adipurush is rocketing up Netflix’s rankings to quickly become one of the streamer’s biggest hits.

Per FlixPatrol, the unconventional attempt at trying to play Hollywood’s big budget fantasies at their own game with a definitively Indian narrative is on the cusp of the global Top 10 after jumping 27 places since yesterday alone, while it’s also a member of Prime Video’s worldwide Top 20.

Critics be damned; the people have spoken, and they want Adipurush.