Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part 1 has arrived in cinemas with a devotional centrepiece that pulls together five distinct vocal traditions. The new recording of the Hanuman Chalisa features Diljit Dosanjh, Kailash Kher, Anirudh Ravichander, Sukhwinder Singh and Mohit Chauhan. It accompanies the sequence that introduces Lord Hanuman and continues into the end credits.
A hymn with structural weight
The placement of the Chalisa matters as much as the line-up. It does not sit outside the film as a promotional single; it scores a climactic narrative beat—Sunny Deol’s appearance as Lord Hanuman—and then carries audiences through the credits. That gives the hymn a dual function: it is both a devotional moment and a bridge into the next instalment.
The film’s score is composed by Hans Zimmer and A. R. Rahman, a pairing that signals how deliberately the two-part saga is positioned as a large-canvas, multilingual production. The five voices extend that reach across Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil musical audiences.
A long recording tradition
The Hanuman Chalisa has never belonged to a single voice. Earlier popular recordings have come from Hariharan, Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Lata Mangeshkar, Kailash Kher and Shankar Mahadevan. A new version for a major film continues that practice, though few renditions have been tied to a character introduction this central to the story.
- Five artists perform the new rendition: Diljit Dosanjh, Kailash Kher, Anirudh Ravichander, Sukhwinder Singh and Mohit Chauhan.
- The track accompanies Hanuman’s introduction and continues into the end credits.
- Hans Zimmer and A. R. Rahman compose the film’s score.
- Sunny Deol’s arrival as Hanuman closes the first instalment and sets up the Battle of Lanka.
Why the opening needs watching
Despite strong advance interest, Ramayana: Part 1 opened below the Rs 100 crore-plus figure that trade observers had anticipated. Sacnilk reported around Rs 50.5 crore in advance ticket sales. On opening day, the Hindi version led with Rs 47.50 crore, Kannada contributed Rs 7.25 crore and Telugu added Rs 6 crore.
The soft start draws extra scrutiny because the two-part saga is reportedly being made on a combined production budget of Rs 4,000 crore. The extended Diwali weekend now becomes the decisive window: walk-ins and word of mouth will determine whether the film gathers momentum before the second instalment moves to the Battle of Lanka.
Diljit Dosanjh also marked the theatrical release with an Instagram post, giving the track’s arrival a second life on social feeds while audiences weigh the film’s big-screen event.
Source: The Times of India
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