Canada has bought more than 16,000 tickets to Ramayana: Rise of a Legend before the film opens on Nov. 4, an early measure of demand worth nearly $284,000. The Hindi release will go out with English subtitles and an English dub, and filmmaker Namit Malhotra has placed it in a wider mainstream footprint than Bollywood titles typically receive.
Presales point to a bigger footprint
The opening is less a single-city event than a national one for diaspora audiences. Ramayana has locked 43 per cent of Canada’s mainstream cinemas, including 83 screenings across Cineplex’s 156 theatres and Landmark locations. Cineplex’s own comparison tells the growth story: 15 locations screened Bollywood films in 2013, and the 2026 Ramayana schedule lists 57 locations.
- 16,000-plus presale tickets, nearing $284,000, before Nov. 4.
- 43 per cent of mainstream Canadian cinemas, up from a 15-location Cineplex base in 2013.
- CDN $589 million reported cost for the film and its November 2027 sequel.
The diaspora is the base, not the ceiling
Canada’s South Asian diaspora is 2.57 million strong, and earlier this year Dhurandhar: The Revenge became Canada’s highest-grossing Indian film with $10.14 million. Overseas revenue is about 20 per cent of Bollywood’s total, and more than half of that comes from the Indian diaspora. The audience also finds its own routes when mainstream pipelines close: the Sikh-centred Hindi film Satluj screened at temples and Khalsa schools in Surrey, Brampton and Edmonton after being removed from Indian streaming services.
The Ramayana has a built-in familiarity. Prasad Kadukan of the Vancouver Hindu Cultural Society said the epic carries “a lasting message to do what is right, treat others with kindness, and fulfill our responsibilities.” UBC professor Sunil Bhatt frames the text as “Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey put together.”
The crossover question
Bhatt notes Bollywood still has to “cross over the way Manga or K-pop does.” The film has some of the raw material for that: Malhotra’s credits include Dune and Interstellar, and the score pairs Hans Zimmer with A.R. Rahman. Leanne Campbell, a Canadian of Anglo-Irish descent, described it simply: “It has such purity and light.”
Bhatt says about 10 per cent of his Bollywood film students are from other backgrounds, often introduced by South Asian friends. The sequel already set for November 2027 means this release can build momentum rather than end the conversation.
Source: Penticton Herald
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