- Ramayana's ₹4,000 crore budget sparks debate over Ravana's role and screen presence
- Old ₹21 crore animated Ramayana still praised for lasting impact and storytelling quality
- New Ramayana seen as a bold step for Indian cinema to gain global filmmaking experience
Indian cinema has put ₹4,000 crore behind a two-part Ramayana, and one of the first arguments out of theatres is whether Ravana has walked away with Rama's film. Some viewers on X say Nitesh Tiwari gives Yash's king of Lanka so much room that Ranbir Kapoor's Rama fades into the background. Others say a Ravana who can command the screen is exactly what the epic needs.
Then finance creator Sharan Hegde brought an old Diwali favourite into the argument. It was the Ramayana he watched on Pogo.
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“Growing up, I remember watching the animated Ramayana almost every Diwali on Pogo,” Hegde wrote on Linkedin. He put the cost of the Indo-Japanese production at ₹21 crore. Three decades on, he said, its animation, music and storytelling still hold up. It's a comparison that invites an uncomfortable question. If the old film could make the epic stick with a generation, what should audiences expect from the ₹4,000-crore version?
Hegde's answer was to back the bigger gamble. “For years, we've complained that India doesn't have its own Christopher Nolan or James Cameron,” he wrote. Hollywood, he argued, spent decades financing ambitious projects, experimenting with technology and sometimes getting it wrong. He sees the new Ramayana as a chance for Indian cinema to build that experience. “Part One doesn't have to be perfect for this to matter,” he wrote. The people making it can carry what they learn into Part Two and the films that come after.
Salman Khan had a different frustration. At the trailer launch of Maatrubhumi, he urged people to talk about Rama and Sita and questioned the fixation on the budget and the VFX. The audience reactions suggest why that conversation is hard to separate. Some viewers loved the scale of the Jatayu fight but felt less for the characters when the action stopped. And the argument about Yash keeps coming back to the story itself. How much of this Ramayana belongs to Ravana?
The Box Office Has Its Own Verdict Coming
After a Friday dip, Ramayana earned ₹69.80 crore net in India on Saturday, a 45.3% jump. Sacnilk put the three-day worldwide gross at ₹375.50 crore, including ₹157.25 crore overseas. Yash, who also co-produced the film, has said the ₹4,000 crore covers both films and their promotion. The makers have yet to disclose a standalone budget for Part One. For now, Saturday's rebound gives the film a lift heading into Diwali Sunday. The harder test comes when the holiday ends and theatres have to fill seats on a working day.
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