Rohit Shetty returns to theaters this Diwali with the next installment of his Cop Universe: Singham Again. The 5-minute trailer featured all the big stars and teased some not-so-subtle Ramayana themes. Many were quick to claim that the themes were apparently added at the last minute to prepare the film for Diwali. Now Milap Zaveri, one of the film's writers, has denied these allegations. (Also read: Singham Again trailer: Ajay Devgn, Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor bring Rohit Shetty touch to Ramayana)

Milap Zaveri on Singham Again's Ramayana references

In a conversation with Siddharth Kannan for his YouTube channel, Zaveri said that the film was always about Ramayana even though it was not supposed to release on Diwali. “The story is by Kshitij Patwardhan. When Kshitij met Rohit, he already had the thought of what if we married Ramayan with the Singham Cop universe and created this story and I think Rohit loved it. This film was originally scheduled to release on August 15, which has nothing to do with Diwali. The shooting of the film got delayed and so now we are releasing a film on Diwali that has Ramayan in it. That's a coincidence. We didn't add Ramayan to redeem Diwali. Ramayan was in the script from the beginning even when we didn't get a release on Diwali,” he said.

Singham Again stars Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Arjun Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh. The trailer shows their characters as symbols of Lord Rama, Sita, Jatayu, Ravana, Lakshman, Sugreeva and Lord Hanuman. The first song of the film is also Jai Bajrangbali, inspired by the Hanuman Chalisa.

Zaveri called Singham Again better than the previous two Singham films, at least on a script level. He said, “I am yet to watch the final film but as far as the script is concerned, it is 100 per cent better than the other Singhams. The emotions of Ramayan that Rohit has brought to the script are beautiful. It will create a place in the heart of every Indian.”

About Singham Again

Singham Again is the third standalone Singham film alongside Simmba and Sooryavanshi, which is also part of the cop universe. This film sets up an Avengers-style crossover event, with characters from the other two making cameo appearances. The mega-budget action drama will hit theaters on November 1 where it will clash with Kartik Aaryan's horror-comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.