Ramayana Eyes Dangal’s ₹2,070.30 cr Global Crown

At a Hyderabad pre-release event, Yash asked audiences to watch Ramayana: Rise of a Legend with an open mind rather than hunting for small VFX faults. The VFX part of that plea drew criticism—and rightly so, because paying viewers get to be critical. But his larger warning deserves attention: losing producers like Namit Malhotra now would push Indian cinema back in time.

That is the real weight behind the film, which opens worldwide today. This is an Indian epic mounted with Hollywood-scale muscle, produced by Namit Malhotra and Yash, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, and scored by AR Rahman with Hans Zimmer. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Yash plays Ravana, and Sai Pallavi leads an ensemble that also includes Sunny Deol, Arun Govil, Lara Dutta and Anupam Kher.

A record that has waited a decade

Since 2016, Aamir Khan’s Dangal has held the global box-office crown. According to trade website Sacnilk, the race looks like this:

• Dangal — ₹2,070.30 crore worldwide
• Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge (2026) — ₹1,813.39 crore
• Pushpa 2: The Rule (2024) — ₹1,742.10 crore

Two ambitious films have come close, but neither has dethroned Dangal. Ramayana arrives with clear advantages: a story that is recognisable far beyond India, a two-part structure, a wide worldwide release and a cast built for scale. If director Nitesh Tiwari breaks his own Dangal record, it would be the kind of filmy detail fans love.

The test is bigger than the frame

RRR proved that an Indian film could become a global talking point. Ramayana is testing something heavier: whether a homegrown epic can be sold as a global theatrical event from opening day, rather than being discovered months later on streaming. International studios have invested in Indian cinema before, but this project is different in scale and ambition.

A theatrical win could do several things at once. It could attract global investment, push younger actors such as Yash, Ranbir and Sai Pallavi in front of new audiences, and make producers more willing to fund the next giant story.

Beyond one record

The real prize is not a single clean VFX frame or even the Dangal benchmark. It is a new ceiling for Indian theatrical business, built on tickets sold around the world. Get that right, and it becomes much easier to imagine a Mahabharata mounted at a similar level. Indian cinema has never been short of epics—it has at times been short of the confidence to bet this big.

The number to watch is ₹2,070.30 crore. Every other debate is secondary.

Source: India Today