RGV rewatches Ramayana and calls it a new benchmark

When a filmmaker with Ram Gopal Varma’s reputation for blunt takes returns to a film, the industry listens. After a second viewing of Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, Varma has doubled down on his praise, calling it a “Taj Mahal of cinema” and arguing that it resets what Indian filmmaking can attempt.

He was careful to frame his verdict. On X, he said he was reviewing as a film enthusiast, not a Ram bhakt, and described himself as an atheist. That distinction matters: his argument is built on craft, scale and storytelling rather than devotion.

What stood out the second time

Varma’s post praised the film’s ambition and scale as its biggest strengths, and he pushed back on critics who, he felt, missed how the visual spectacle feeds the emotional core. He named Nitesh Tiwari’s direction and Namit Malhotra’s producing vision as an attempt Indian cinema had never imagined before.

Among the moments he called out:

• The opening cosmic battle and Ravana’s ten heads
• The forest sequences and the Ravana-Jatayu battle
• The music under the Tandav and aerial sequences

He went further on scale, writing that the film made some of Hollywood’s biggest productions feel like “stage plays” by comparison.

Yash, Ranbir and the music

For Varma, Yash’s Ravana is the gravitational centre. He wrote that the performance was “not a performance of the year, but it is of many decades,” and that the writing gave Ravana the intelligence, devotion and inner conflict that make him more than a conventional villain. “In short, there’s no Rama without Ravana,” he added.

He also defended Ranbir Kapoor’s Rama against the complaint that the actor kept a similar expression through the film. Varma argued that restraint is the whole point: “Ram is defined by what he withholds and not by what he expresses.”

Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman’s score also earned his backing. He said the music complemented the visuals rather than competing with them, and that songs some critics called functional actually sustained the momentum of a three-hour film.

A benchmark, not a ratings race

Varma questioned whether star ratings can capture an effort of this scale. He believes Ramayana: Rise of a Legend does not need to borrow from The Lord of the Rings or Avatar because it draws from India’s own stories. He ended with a prediction: the only film that can surpass this part is its sequel.

His post earned a thank-you from director Nitesh Tiwari. This is not the first time Varma has praised the film; earlier he called it a powerful cinematic experience and asked the makers not to be discouraged by harsh reviews.

That endorsement carries a particular charge because Varma has positioned himself outside devotional fandom. In his earlier post he likened harsh reviews to “barking street dogs” and urged the makers not to be discouraged. This time he went further, framing the film as a standard to beat rather than a title to defend.

For Hindi film fans, the takeaway is less about agreement and more about the terms of the debate. RGV is asking viewers to judge Ramayana: Rise of a Legend as a craft achievement first, before they rank it against their own expectations of the epic.

Source: India Today