As Ramayana moves toward its November 5, 2026 release, its cast is making an unusual appeal: judge the film, but do not turn its young visual-effects artists into targets.
Support over scrutiny
Speaking to India Today, Suhail Nayyar, who plays Sugriva in Nitesh Tiwari’s two-part adaptation of the epic, admitted the project will face close examination. But he asked viewers to think about the labour behind the frame, especially from the Indian artists producing the visual effects.
“There are young Indian people handling VFX. They are around 19 to 25 years old, and they work so hard,” Nayyar said.
He then offered a comparison: when the Indian cricket team reaches a World Cup final, fans do not add to the players’ burden. They send blessings. Ramayana, he argued, deserves the same room.
Yash’s earlier appeal
At a Hyderabad pre-release event, Yash, who plays Ravana, made a similar request. He asked audiences not to pick at the film’s VFX and said producer Namit Malhotra should be protected for trying to take Indian cinema to a global stage. The appeal frames the film as a national project rather than a commercial release alone.
Why this matters now
This is more than a cast defending its own film. It is an attempt to shape how audiences receive a large-scale Indian VFX production before a single review is written. A two-part telling raises the stakes: the first film has to carry the weight of the entire project.
Nayyar also described the on-set mood as respectful and said the care shown to the written material made him proud to be part of the project.
- Release: Ramayana Part 1 reaches theatres on November 5, 2026.
- Cast: Ranbir Kapoor is Rama, Sai Pallavi is Sita, and Yash is Ravana.
- VFX team: Nayyar says young Indian artists, roughly 19 to 25, handle the effects.
- Ask: The cast wants blessings, not pressure, before judgement.
The cricket analogy is effective because it moves the conversation from technical perfection to collective ownership. Instead of asking audiences to ignore flaws, the cast is asking them to see the film as the product of a team working under expectation. That may be a difficult ask for a genre where every frame is screenshotted and compared.
Still, the message is consistent across the film’s team. Yash’s Hyderabad appeal and Nayyar’s interview both land on the same point: the ambition is large, the artists are young, and the audience’s first instinct should be encouragement rather than dissection.
The test comes after release
The goodwill being requested in advance will eventually meet the audience’s verdict. For a two-part epic trying to place Indian VFX on a global stage, that reception matters beyond opening day. The release will test whether the blessings narrative translates into patience with the craft.
Source: The Times of India
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