The two-part Ramayana has begun its public life not in Mumbai or Delhi but at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. On 27 October, the film’s world premiere filled the David Geffen Theatre, with Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Yash, producer Namit Malhotra and director Nitesh Tiwari in attendance.
A platform borrowed from Hollywood
The choice of venue is deliberate. Prime Focus Studios and DNEG, with Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, are positioning the adaptation of the Indian epic as a global event. Sony Pictures will distribute the film outside India, while Dharma Productions will handle the Hindi-speaking market.
Malhotra framed the Los Angeles screening as more than promotion. “This is a massive spectacle coming out of India about one of the greatest epics and a Hollywood studio that’s distributing it,” he said. The aim, he added, is not just curiosity but credibility.
Why the scale matters
The two parts carry a reported combined budget of over Rs 4,000 crore, which the producers are touting as the most ambitious Indian production ever. That is the number to watch: it sets expectations not just for visual scale but for a theatrical run that must work across languages and markets.
- Worldwide release: 5 November 2026
- Second part: expected Diwali 2027
- Languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam
- Format: IMAX release planned
- Distribution: Sony Pictures (international), Dharma Productions (Hindi-speaking market)
What the premiere signals
A Los Angeles premiere is a credibility play: it places an Indian epic in a venue associated with Hollywood’s biggest releases and gives the film a global image before it opens at home. Yash, who plays Ravana and is also a producer on the project, tied the moment to a longer story. “In our country, we just don’t tell the story, we remember it, and we pass it down for generations,” he said.
The screening comes nine days before the worldwide release, keeping the event close enough to opening weekend to convert attention into ticket sales. Because Sony Pictures is handling international distribution, the premiere also serves as an announcement to non-Indian audiences: the familiar epic is arriving with a studio apparatus behind it. For a story Indian audiences know by heart, the harder job is making the scale legible to viewers who did not grow up with it.
The cast is wide, including Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher, Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor, Adinath Kothare, Arun Govil, Indira Krishnan and Lara Dutta. The premiere is the first public test of whether that ensemble can carry the epic’s two-film arc across multiple audiences.
Source: The Hindu
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