Ramayan producer says actors asked him if he had funds to pull off Ramayan, pegged at Rs 4,000 cr: ‘Even I don’t know where money’s coming from’

There’s been a lot of conversation around the film’s budget. While the official budget was revealed to bearound  Rs 4,000 crore, trade analyst Komal Nahata said producer Namit Malhotra claimed he may spend even three times of that, if needed, out of his passion for the mega ambitious project. Malhotra reiterated the same recently on the Game Changers podcast.

“The shooting for Part 1 is almost over now. When I started planning the film, we had a huge vision. Everyone, including actors, asked me if I have enough funds to pull it off. I’ve finished the first film and not borrowed a single rupee. I don’t know where the money is coming from. When people ask me how I pulled it off, even I don’t know. This is something else. It’s just happening on its own. This is not just a project or a business proposition,” said Malhotra.

“People ask me what my final budget is going to be — I don’t know. I don’t check that every day. I just see if we’re making the right product. There should be no compromise anywhere,” added Malhotra on the Game Changers podcast. He claimed that if his company DNEG can survive the pandemic and the Hollywood strike last year, and still manage to pay salaries every month to its 11,000 employees, profits and losses are a part of running a business.

“Today, Ramayana has infused a new life into our business. Even in my experience of 30 years, I can’t pinpoint how it’s happening, but it is,” said Malhotra, promising that he’s asked all his employees to pull their socks up for this project. “We’ve won so many Oscars for the biggest of Hollywood films. But Ramayana is even bigger and tougher to crack than all of them.

DNEG has won seven Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects of Hollywood biggies like Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), and Tenet (2020), Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014), Damien Chazelle’s First Man (2018), Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Dune franchise. It’s also won Primetime Emmy Awards for Dreamkeeper (2003), Chernobyl (2019), Star Trek: Discovery season 3, and The Last Of Us.

Malhotra also believes that with films like Ramayana, Indian cinema can do even bigger business overseas than they do domestically. “If you go back to the Hollywood of 30 years ago, they used to do a business of 60:40 in domestic and international markets, similar to our ratio today. But it’s inverse today. They’re earning 20-25% from domestic and 75-80% from overseas. If we also present our films with the same quality today, I have no doubt that opportunity can come to us. As producers, it’s our job that we show that vision to our directors and actors accordingly. That’s the starting point,” argued Malhotra.

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Ramayana: Part 1 also stars Sunny Deol as Hanuman, Ravi Dubey as Lakshman, Sheeba Chaddha as Manthara, Arun Govil as Dashratha, Kunal Kapoor as Indraneil, and Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi among others. Its score is being composed by AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer, in the latter’s Indian cinema debut. Part 1 and 2 are slated to release in cinemas on Diwali 2026 and 2027 respectively.