New Delhi: Namit Malhotra’s Ramayana: Rise of a Legend has recorded the biggest opening ever for an Indian film at the United Kingdom-Ireland box office. In its opening week, the film collected approximately Rs 25 crore across 364 locations. The film has also broken the previous record held by Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar 2, which collected approximately Rs 10 crore on its first Monday.
The film has registered strong collections across international markets. Its North American release alone collected nearly Rs 108 crore, while the UK and Ireland brought in around Rs 25 crore. The film also collected approximately Rs 21 crore in the United Arab Emirates, Rs 18 crore in Australia, Rs 6 crore in Germany, Rs 5 crore in Thailand, Rs 5 crore in Nepal, Rs 2.25 crore in the Netherlands and Rs 70 lakh in South Africa.
“If we don’t make money with the movies, we’ll make it in merchandise. If we don’t make it in merchandise, we’ll make it in the theme park. If we don’t make it in the theme park, we’ll make it some other way,” Malhotra said in an interview with CNN.
The film opened in more than 100 countries and across over 10,000 screens worldwide, with Sony Pictures handling its international distribution. Ramayana’s North American release alone included almost 1,433 theatres.
The English version has a runtime of 166 minutes, shorter than the original Hindi version, which runs for 195 minutes.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the film, based on the Hindu epic, was released in five languages in India: Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. The film has collected Rs 453.14 crore net domestically. Its worldwide collection had crossed Rs 823 crore by Day 6, according to Sacnilk.
Oscar-winning composers Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman have put together the film’s music. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Raavan and Ravi Dubey as Lakshman. Its post-credit scene offers a glimpse of Sunny Deol as Hanuman, accompanied by a Hanuman Chalisa sung by Diljit Dosanjh and five other singers, including Sukhwinder Singh, Mohit Chauhan, Kailash Kher, and Shankar Mahadevan.
The second part of the epic is expected to be released in 2028. With both instalments, the overall budget of the project is reportedly set to reach Rs 4,000 crore.
Malhotra has also indicated that his vision for the Ramayana franchise goes beyond making two films. He does not want the journey of Ram to end with the second instalment.
“In fact, it is to start this journey. On the back of this movie, we can actually start to open up the different areas of engagement,” he said.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)