Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut Says The Avengers Draw Inspiration from Indian Deities

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut recently claimed that popular Marvel comic book team The Avengers was heavily inspired by Indian mythology, especially from the stories and characters of The Mahabharata.

The actress made this bold statement during the promotional interview with Indiatimes for her upcoming film Dhaakad, which will release on May 20.

In Dhaakad, Ranaut will play an international spy, who goes by the name Agent Agni. Over the years, Hollywood has perfected the female spy genre with hits like Atomic Blonde, Black Widow and many more. However, this would be India’s first major film in the genre since the release of Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi in 2018.

During her chat, Ranaut talked about genres which are quite popular in Hollywood but continue to remain underutilized in Bollywood. This included the superhero genre, which has been popularized by the MCU and DCEU.

When asked about potentially dipping her hands in the superhero world, Ranaut revealed that she would be interested to portray larger-than-life Indian mythology heroes instead of a character introduced in comic books.

However, she later continued by stating that western comics drew a ton of inspiration from Indian mythology to create heroes and villains. Moreover, she even mentioned that Marvel comic book heroes like Iron Man and Thor have been influenced by Mahabharata and Ramayana characters like Karna and Hanuman, respectively.

She concluded by noting that Stan Lee’s Avengers, which has been a force to be reckoned with in comics and live-action, has elements taken from Mahabharata and the Vedas.