Ramayana: Rise of a Legend chariot cost ₹1.5 crore

When a film arrives with a reported budget of over ₹4,000 crore, it is easy to assume the magic is mostly digital. For Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, art director Ramesh is telling a different story — one of clay, fibre, gold leaf and hundreds of workers building a physical world by hand.

Speaking to Prabhat Khabar, Ramesh explained how he came aboard the Nitesh Tiwari epic. He was working on Pratik Gandhi’s web series Gandhi when US-based production designer Ramsey Avery interviewed him over a video call. Avery liked his work, and Ramesh was hired the next day. A veteran of over 30 Bollywood films, including Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai, 83 and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Ramesh has made a career of grounding spectacle in texture.

Hand-built, not green-screened

Ramesh’s team joined the project in February 2024, and construction began in April 2024 at Prime Focus Studios in Film City, Mumbai. The scale was enormous, but the philosophy was deliberately analogue. Instead of leaning solely on green screens, the art department hand-crafted floor textures, wall motifs and gold decorations across more than 150 sets. Each structure went through 10 to 15 design versions before it was locked.

The cost of a demon’s throne

Some of the line items show just how much was spent on individual pieces.

• Ravana’s throne: four months of work, nearly ₹1 crore, finished in 24-carat gold leaf over a fibre and clay base.
• Surpanakha’s chariot: a working vehicle that took three months to build at ₹1.5 crore.
• Jatayu: a 24-foot-tall skeleton model that gave actors a physical reference for eye-lines and dialogue.
• Pushpak Vimana: 50 feet wide and too large for the studio, so it was built in four separate parts over 40–50 days.

Scale you can feel on screen

These details matter because they change the texture of a scene. Real surfaces catch light differently, and actors respond physically to a throne or a chariot in a way that a green-screen marker cannot. The production’s workforce numbers underline the point: the Lanka set alone kept 500 to 600 workers busy at a time, and major crowd scenes had up to 1,000 dancers and junior artists.

According to Ramesh, Tiwari personally checked every set a day before it was shot, after reviewing storyboards and concept art four days earlier. That loop between design and direction is a large part of why the film’s world feels consistent.

What is next for the Ramayana universe

For fans, the good news is that the craft pipeline is already rolling. Ramesh confirmed that work on Part 2 has begun, with his team preparing the next round of sets as the story grows bigger. The makers have also released Sunny Deol’s first look as Lord Hanuman from the post-credits scene, along with the Hanuman Chalisa music video.

So when you watch the film, look past the star cast for a moment. The gold on Ravana’s throne was applied by hand, and that is a promise of the physical detail the franchise is betting on.

Source: The Times of India