There’s a veritable excitement around the release of Namit Malhotra’s Ramayana. And it has to do with the casting coup of bringing together Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash. Beyond the star-studded aura of this project though is an excitement to watch a timeless classic, a mythological epic unfold on the big screen. Ramayana, thanks to Ramanand Sagar and Arun Govil, has become a part of Indian mainstream culture in the last 4 decades. But that 1987 TV series is etched in the memory of almost every Indian viewer and the biggest task for 2026’s retelling is going to be to impress this very large diaspora of an audience. If the 2.5-minute preview of Ramayana is anything to go by, this very committed and invested audience will get a never-seen-before experience with a film that looks as impressive as any multi-million dollar Hollywood epic. If not better.

One is not trying to oversell this ambitious project. The first visuals of this fantasy, mythology epic, which were shown to a select section of the Indian media yesterday at producer Namit Malhotra’s Mumbai home, are genuinely mind blowing. The 3D depth and wide-frame treatment look immersive and captivating. The thunderous soundscape adds the requisite depth to this epic. Everything feels big, better and majestic. And at the heart of this epic feeling is Ranbir Kapoor’s first glimpses as Lord Rama. As the actor, dressed up in regal kingly attire, walks in to the frame of the film, the radiance on his face shines brighter than Malhotra’s and Tiwari’s 1000s of crores worth production finesse. It looks like Ranbir was tailor made to fit into this role. Atleast, his first visage does that.