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3 min readChennaiApr 14, 2026 04:35 PM IST
The promotions of Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Ramayana have begun. Recently, the film’s producer Namit Malhotra and actor Yash, who plays the role of Ravana in the epic, spoke about the film during interviews at CinemaCon. During one such interaction, Namit spoke about the significance of Ramayana arriving in theatres at a time when grand cinematic releases like Dune: Part Three and The Odyssey are also awaited.
Speaking about his film to Fandango, he said, “What is interesting, and it was a perspective I actually heard from someone in America itself – it was like – ‘You are bringing us the first story of the world or the first story of the universe, but it’s something we don’t know much about. So, it’s almost like you are telling us a timeless story, but it’s actually… we are going to discover it for the first time.’”
He also argued that amid all the high-profile releases, Ramayana will bring freshness to the epic and explained why it is relevant in today’s time. He said, “There’s a lot of freshness and excitement towards it. Obviously, every Indian, their heart beats with this story. All of us, our parents, our grandparents, generations before us – have all learned the Ramayana, heard the Ramayana, experienced it in various different forms. It’s very interesting to sort of bring something with that big screen spectacle, but with the heart that every Indian cares about to the world. That I think is very, very relevant.”
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Referring to Dune: Part Three and The Odyssey, Malhotra said, “With all the other epics that you just mentioned, the audiences in cinemas want to see something that is new and different. Their mindset is a lot more open to consuming different types of stories. I think we’ve all seen enough of the same fare. But I think now it’s about what new can we bring?”
In another interaction with Rotten Tomatoes, Namit described his film as an “Avatar meets Gladiator moment.” He explained how the film combines spectacular world-building while also telling a deeply human story. “I always love to give a comparison – It’s like an Avatar meets Gladiator moment where you see the absolutely wonderful world of Avatar but the human story of Gladiator, where you have that emotion and that graph of how these two sorts of worlds co-exist,” he said.
Ramayana is directed by Nitesh Tiwari. The first part of the film will release on Diwali this year. The film also stars Sai Pallavi, Sunny Deol, Ravi Dubey, Kajal Aggarwal and others in key roles.
