Ramayana advance bookings touch Rs 40 crore for extended weekend

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is already putting up blockbuster-sized numbers well before its November 5 release. Early advance booking figures suggest the Ranbir Kapoor and Yash epic is heading for a strong start in India and overseas, with five days still to go.

India advance booking nears Rs 20 crore for day one

The film has collected an estimated Rs 19.61 crore across India for its opening day alone, with the total at about Rs 16.31 crore if blocked seats are excluded. NCR leads city markets with Rs 3.25 crore, while Karnataka tops the states at Rs 3.89 crore, or roughly 20% of the opening-day gross. Maharashtra follows closely with Rs 3.85 crore, and Delhi has recorded Rs 3.25 crore.

Hindi is the engine behind the domestic numbers, with Rs 16.28 crore in opening-day advance sales, around 83% of the total. The Kannada version has contributed Rs 2.56 crore.

Extended weekend pushes the total higher

Looking beyond the first day, a Films Discourse report estimates total advance bookings for the extended five-day weekend at Rs 40 crore, or around Rs 22.11 crore excluding blocked seats. The film has also received a U certificate from the CBFC, with the Hindi version running 195 minutes, or 3 hours 15 minutes.

One point of conversation around the release is the reported use of AI for the English-dubbed version, where characters are said to speak English without the film being reshot in different languages. That has drawn some criticism, but it has not slowed the pre-sales momentum so far.

Overseas pre-sales cross USD 3.45 million

International audiences are showing similar interest. As of October 30, combined overseas advance booking for all show dates stood at an estimated USD 3.45 million.

• North America, covering the United States and Canada, leads with about USD 2.58 million.
• The United Kingdom and Ireland follow with roughly USD 351,200.
• Australia and New Zealand round out the top three with around USD 313,000.

What it means for opening weekend

For Hindi film fans, these figures are a useful cue: day-one shows in NCR and Karnataka are likely to fill quickly, and the long runtime means fewer showtimes per screen across the day. If you plan to catch the film on Thursday, booking early is likely to get you a better seat and format.

More broadly, the mix of Hindi-first demand and strong Kannada numbers suggests Ramayana is drawing both a pan-India audience and a dedicated southern base. That positions it as an event film rather than a single-territory opener.

Source: The Times of India