The numbers behind Nitesh Tiwari‘s Ramayana are getting so big they’re pushing the boundaries of even what we consider possible. With a confirmed budget now sitting at a mind-boggling ₹4,000 crore ($500 million) for the two-part epic, everyone in the industry is wondering whether or not it will all pay off – the budget is so big it’s almost not even a question of whether the movie will be any good. Which is a problem for Namit Malhotra, the DNEG chief, because he’s been very bold in his ambitions – New Intel suggests the man is planning a full-on, no-holds barred Global Launch involving a staggering 42,535 screens. To put that in perspective: that’s almost quadruple the number of screens used for Pushpa 2
The Domestic Game-changer
Malhotra has basically built his own team of distribution superstars to make sure no theatre in India is showing anything but Ranbir Kapoor’s face this Diwali – he’s effectively cornered the market. By getting Anil Thadani (AA Films) to handle the North and Dil Raju to handle the Telugu territory, he has all but wrapped up the two biggest revenue streams in his pocket. And that’s before you even get to the real masterstroke: getting Red Giant Movies on board to handle the Tamil Nadu market – let’s be honest, having the Deputy CM’s outfit distributing your film more or less guarantees that your movie is going to be playing on every high-end screen from Chennai to Coimbatore
The China ‘Big Deal’
Now that you’ve got the domestic 8,000-screen market covered, the real prize is China – and Malhotra knows it. Getting Ramayana cleared for a massive 20,000-screen release in China is the holy grail – this is the same territory that turned Dangal into a global phenomenon. Now if even a tenth of those screens get a decent amount of people watching, the ₹4,000 crore budget starts to look like a very smart gamble, rather than a massive risk
The Warner Bros. Factor
Over in the West, things are different. For the first time ever, an Indian epic is getting the full Hollywood treatment – Warner Bros. has got its hands on 4,500+ screens in North America. And this time, it’s not just about reaching out to people who’ve got family back in India – this is about using all the leverage that comes from winning 8 Oscars and forcing Indian mythology into the mainstream.
The Verdict
Is this a risk worth taking? Absolutely. If the Hans Zimmer-score and the VFX don’t quite live up to the hype, then Malhotra will probably be the one looking pretty silly. But if his 42,000-screen behemoth actually works – if it just hums along nicely doing what it’s supposed to do – then we’re looking at something much bigger than a simple hit movie. We’re talking about a potential global franchise worth billions of dollars – a multi-billion dollar global IP that finally breaks that ‘glass ceiling’ for Indian cinema
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