A blessing from the epic’s modern master
Two weeks before Ramayana: Rise of a Legend opens, SS Rajamouli has given the production a very public send-off. The RRR and Baahubali director wrote on X on October 17 that the Ramayana is “a story every Indian storyteller grows up aspiring to tell.” He praised Nitesh Tiwari and Namit Malhotra for bringing it to the screen “on such a grand scale,” and said the actors bring the characters to life with depth. “Looking forward to 5th November,” he wrote.
The endorsement lands differently from the usual pre-release wishes. Rajamouli is the filmmaker who turned Indian epics into global box-office events. When he frames the project as a generational aspiration, he lends the film a weight that a poster or trailer cannot supply.
What the first part promises
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari and co-written by Shridhar Raghavan, the film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Kannada superstar Yash as Ravana, marking the star’s entry into Hindi cinema. The wider ensemble includes Sunny Deol, Ravie Dubey, Anupam Kher, Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor, Adinath Kothare, Arun Govil, Indira Krishnan and Lara Dutta.
The musical scale matches the casting. Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman, both Academy Award winners, have written the score. The film is set to arrive in more than 50,000 theatres worldwide, with IMAX screenings planned, ahead of its November 5 release.
Why the scale matters
This is not merely another release. The distribution number, the two composers and the presence of Yash as Ravana signal a film built for an international audience first. Rajamouli’s endorsement connects Ramayana: Rise of a Legend to the same export logic that made Baahubali and RRR reference points outside India.
For Hindi cinema watchers, the question is whether a story this familiar can justify such scale. The epic’s screen history is long, and audiences arrive with strong memories. The first part’s task is to make the familiar feel both grand and immediate.
- Release date: November 5, worldwide
- Director: Nitesh Tiwari; co-writer: Shridhar Raghavan
- Music: Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman
- Distribution: more than 50,000 theatres, including IMAX
The test after the blessing
Rajamouli’s words set an expectation. They frame the film not as an experiment but as a cultural event. That helps the campaign, but it also raises the bar. When the endorsement comes from the director who set the modern template for the Indian epic, viewers will measure the film against that template.
The release in two weeks will show whether the storytelling, not just the scale, carries the weight of the source. For now, the industry’s strongest voice has told the audience that this is the story it was always waiting to see.
Source: Moneycontrol
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