Advance sales for Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana opened on October 20, coinciding with Dussehra, and crossed ₹3 crore within 24 hours. It is an encouraging start, but the comparison with an earlier 2026 hit keeps the first-day number in perspective ahead of the film’s November 5 release.
The first part is planned as a two-film adaptation of the Hindu epic. It stars Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana, with Sunny Deol as Hanuman. Namit Malhotra produces, with music by Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman.
Day-one advance booking by the numbers
According to Sacnilk, the film collected ₹3.13 crore in advance bookings, excluding blocked seats. The early footprint is spread across a limited set of shows:
- ₹3.13 crore gross advance in the first 24 hours
- 86,187 tickets sold
- 3,537 shows across 104 cities
- 11% occupancy
- About 95% of gross from the Hindi version through 3,474 shows
- Around ₹25 lakh from the Kannada version through 61 shows
Premium demand and the language skew
On BookMyShow, the limited shows that have opened are filling quickly. A ₹2,770 PVR Phoenix Palladium IMAX show in Mumbai is sold out, and another at ₹1,550 is nearly full. In New Delhi, some 7:10 am screenings have only a few seats left.
Premium tickets are useful as a measure of commitment because they are the most expensive seats; a sellout there does not guarantee a mainstream breakout, but it shows the core audience is ready to pay. The advance is overwhelmingly Hindi-led, but the Kannada contribution—around ₹25 lakh from only 61 shows—signals early interest in Karnataka, where Yash’s presence as Ravana is a known draw. Tamil and Telugu bookings have not opened yet, so the current figure captures only part of the eventual audience.
Where the comparison stands
Dhurandhar: The Revenge, one of 2026’s biggest successes, collected ₹7.80 crore in its first 24 hours of advance booking for opening day, excluding blocked seats. Ramayana is at ₹3.13 crore from the same window. The gap matters because advance bookings are read as an early demand signal for opening day, but the comparison is not final: more shows are expected, and the southern-language windows remain closed.
What to watch next
The pace of new show additions, the opening of Tamil and Telugu bookings, and whether premium-format sellouts spread beyond Mumbai will determine whether the opening-day number rises. Until then, ₹3.13 crore is best read as a floor rather than a ceiling.
Source: Hindustan Times
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