The Ramayana has been retold on Indian screens since the silent era. The newest telling opens on Thursday, and the audience has already put its money down.

Ramayana: Part 1, Nitesh Tiwari's two-part adaptation with Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana and Sunny Deol as Hanuman, releases worldwide on 5 November. Paid previews run on 4 November, including in North America.

The pre-sales

Bookings opened on Dussehra, 20 October, an unusually long runway of more than two weeks. The numbers have climbed steadily since:

  • 25-26 October: about ₹20 crore in worldwide advance sales and past the $2 million mark, as reported by Gulf News, Business Today and The CSR Journal, citing trade tracker Sacnilk.
  • 27 October: ₹13.14 crore in India pre-sales from about 2.43 lakh tickets, per Outlook India.
  • 1 November: ₹34.72 crore gross in India for the first two days on sale, from 7.79 lakh tickets, according to Sacnilk's latest report. Without block-booked seats, that is ₹27.94 crore.

Opening day alone accounts for ₹22.77 crore of that, per Sacnilk. Hindi brings in about 84% of the money, with Kannada a distant but real second, which is what happens when Ravana is played by a Kannadiga superstar.

The price of a ticket to Ayodhya

This is a premium-format release. Sacnilk's comparison put Ramayana's average advance ticket at ₹559, more than double the ₹252 average for Animal, Ranbir's biggest opener. IMAX 3D alone made up nearly a quarter of early sales.

That cuts both ways. Fewer tickets are earning more money, so the film can look stronger in rupees than in footfalls. Sacnilk's own projection, made on 26 October, is a Hindi net opening of ₹60-70 crore, against Animal's ₹54.75 crore. These are trade estimates, and the first Thursday will settle the argument.

The LA verdict: grand, but

The world premiere was held on 27 October at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, with Ranbir, Sai Pallavi, Yash, Tiwari and producer Namit Malhotra on the carpet. As per Gulf News, fans chanted "Ravana" for Yash, who told the crowd that "where you come from will never stop how far you can go."

Full reviews are still under embargo, so these are social media first takes, and they are split:

  • The praise: scale, visuals, Ranbir's restrained Rama and, nearly everywhere, Yash's Ravana. One viewer compared the experience to watching the first Lord of the Rings.
  • The pushback: critics on X called parts of the narration "TV serial like," flagged visible green screen and "cartoonish" asuras, and said the mix of Indian and Hollywood music, from AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer, did not always land.

Both Gulf News and Outlook note the LA screening was the English-dubbed version, about 30 minutes shorter than the Hindi cut, which runs over three hours.

Why it matters

Part 2 is already set for Diwali 2027, and Malhotra is pitching a full franchise of spin-offs. That plan rests on this weekend. Hindi cinema has had a patchy 2026, and a strong start for a homegrown epic with a worldwide release through Sony Pictures would be a statement that India can do spectacle on its own terms.

The pre-sales say the curiosity is there. Whether it is a blockbuster depends on what families say on the way out on Thursday night.

Box office and advance figures are trade estimates and may be revised.

Sources