Ranbir Kapoor has spent the release week answering for a large-scale retelling of the Ramayana, but it is an older conversation that is shaping how audiences are meeting his performance. A 2024 chat with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath has resurfaced as Ramayana: Rise of a Legend – Part 1 arrives in theatres, and it returns to the same theme: how Raha changed him.
Fatherhood rearranged the way he thinks about time
In the conversation, Kapoor described holding his daughter for the first time as one of the most meaningful moments of his life. “It’s like somebody has taken my heart and put it in my hands,” he told Kamath. The actor said the feeling was overwhelming and difficult to explain.
That shift also changed something more specific: his relationship with mortality. Kapoor said he had never feared death and had long told himself he would die at 71, a number he tied to an obsession with eight. After Raha’s birth, he said, that arithmetic no longer works. Being a father made him feel “reborn,” and 71 now felt “too soon.”
The change matters because Kapoor has often played detached or guarded figures. Here he framed fatherhood as the end of a certain detachment.
Three changes he tied to the same moment
- Death: He moved from imagining an endpoint at 71 to feeling that another 30 years was not enough.
- Smoking: He gave up cigarettes after starting at 17, a habit he called “a very nasty habit.”
- Identity: He described his first 40 years as “another life,” with new emotions beginning after Raha.
The smoking decision was practical, not philosophical
Kapoor was plain about the trigger. He said he started smoking at 17 and quit only last year, after more than two decades. “When I became a father, I started feeling very unhealthy,” he said. That detail grounds the larger reflection: the change was not only emotional but physical, tied to wanting to be present for his daughter.
He also described the different roles he and Alia Bhatt play at home. Raha, he said, treats Alia as an extension of herself, while he is the source of “masti” and play. “We are flirting all the time,” he said.
The release arrives with a strong but imperfect first day
The renewed attention arrives as Ramayana: Rise of a Legend – Part 1, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, opened on November 5, 2026. The film stars Kapoor alongside Yash and Sai Pallavi and has drawn largely positive reviews.
On its opening day, the film collected an estimated Rs 65 crore net in India, according to Sacnilk. The Hindi version contributed Rs 47.50 crore. The estimated worldwide gross for day one stood at Rs 127.50 crore. That is a substantial start, but it sits below the Rs 100 crore domestic opening that trade experts had reportedly predicted.
The gap matters because the film’s commercial story will be read across the next few days. A mythological epic of this scale needs sustained momentum, not just a large first-day figure. Kapoor’s personal narrative may supply warmth, but the box office will be judged on repeat viewing and word of mouth.
Source: The Times of India
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