Indian filmmaker Sanjay Gupta sparked online chatter after the teaser of Ramayana was released. On X (formerly Twitter), he posted, “KHODA PAHAAD… NIKLA CHUHA,” which translates roughly to “much effort, but a disappointing outcome.”

The Ram Shastra director did not mention any film, but many social media users linked his post to the teaser of Nitesh Tiwari’s mythological epic. The teaser introduced Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, with glimpses of Yash as Ravana, and had already generated significant buzz online.

Several fans speculated about Gupta’s intent. One comment read, “Not in good taste, must not be from an industry person,” while another said, “Strange to see a filmmaker judge a two-minute teaser on a mobile when it was filmed for IMAX.” Some users compared the post to his past work, mentioning, “Got the same feeling after watching Shootout at Wadala.”

This was not the first time Sanjay appeared to reference Ramayana indirectly. 

In 2025, after producer Namit Malhotra shared that the two-part epic had a budget of nearly Rs 4,000 crore, Gupta wrote on X(formerly Twitter), “MATRIX, LORD OF THE RINGS, AVATAAR, DUNE, STARWARS, etc. All films with groundbreaking never seen before VFX. None spoke about it before the release. They let the work speak for itself.” Many linked the post to the Ramayana team due to its timing.

Sanjay Gupta, has not issued any clarification regarding his latest post.

The teaser, titled Rama, marks the first official look at the two-part cinematic retelling of the ancient epic, produced by Prime Focus Studios in association with DNEG and Monster Mind Creations.