Days after a flashy premiere at the recently concluded San Diego Comic-Con, the first theatrical trailer for the upcoming Indian epic Ramayana was released to the world on July 29, drawing divisive reactions from viewers. The movie hopes to achieve for Indian mythology what Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey has for the Greek myths. The movie is based on one of the two seminal Hindu texts, the Ramayana, with the other being the Mahabharata. What makes the new movie adaptation — there have been several in the past, as recently as Adipurush in 2023 — is that it’s being touted as the most expensive film produced in India, the world’s largest maker of films. Ramayana‘s producer, Namit Malhotra, has stated that the film’s budget exceeds $400 million.
This makes Ramayanaone of the most expensive films of all time, with a budget surpassing that of The Odyssey and being in the same range as those of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The reception for the Ramayana trailer, however, has been decidedly mixed. Viewers seem to be in two minds about the casting and the visual effects. Since the movie is aimed at a global audience, the four-minute trailer spends a significant amount of time setting the stage — Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, is introduced first, followed by Rama, the prince of Ayodhya. The Ramayana is a quintessential good-versus-evil epic, in which Rama travels to Lanka with an army of monkeys to fight Ravana and his demons, after Ravana kidnaps Rama’s wife, Sita.
Collider Exclusive · Middle-earth Quiz Which Lord of the Rings Character Are You? One Quiz · Ten Questions · Your Fate Revealed
The road goes ever on. From the green hills of the Shire to the fires of Mount Doom, every soul in Middle-earth carries a destiny. Ten questions stand between you and the truth of who you are. Answer honestly — the One Ring has a way of revealing what we most want to hide.
💍Frodo
🌿Samwise
👑Aragorn
🔥Gandalf
🏹Legolas
⚒️Gimli
👁️Sauron
🪨Gollum
01
You are handed a responsibility that could destroy you. What do you do? The weight of the world falls on unlikely shoulders.
02
Your closest companion is heading into terrible danger. You: True loyalty is revealed not in comfort, but in crisis.
03
Enormous power is within your reach. Your instinct is: Power corrupts — but only those who reach for it.
04
What does “home” mean to you? Where we long to return reveals who we truly are.
05
When a battle is upon you, your approach is: War reveals what we are made of — whether we like it or not.
06
Someone comes to you for advice in their darkest hour. You: Wisdom is not knowing all the answers — it’s knowing which questions to ask.
07
How do you see yourself, honestly? Self-knowledge is the most dangerous kind.
08
Which of these best describes your relationship with the natural world? Middle-earth speaks to those who know how to listen.
09
You encounter a wretched, pitiable creature who has done terrible things. You: How we treat the fallen reveals the height of our character.
10
When the quest is over and the songs are sung, what do you hope they say about you? In the end, we are all just stories.
The Fellowship Has Spoken Your Place in Middle-earth
The scores below reveal your true character. Your highest number is your match. Even a tie tells a story — the Fellowship was never made of simple people.
💍 Frodo
🌿 Samwise
👑 Aragorn
🔥 Gandalf
🏹 Legolas
⚒️ Gimli
👁️ Sauron
🪨 Gollum
You carry something heavy — and you carry it alone, even when you don’t have to. You were not born for greatness, and that is precisely why greatness chose you. Your courage is not the roaring, sword-swinging kind; it is quiet, stubborn, and terrifying in its refusal to quit. The Ring weighs on you more than anyone can see, and still you walk toward the fire. That is not weakness. That is the rarest kind of strength there is.
You are, without question, the best of them. Not the most powerful, not the most celebrated — but the most essential. Your loyalty is not a trait; it is a force of nature. You would carry the person you love up the slopes of Mount Doom if it came to that, and we both know you’d do it without being asked. The world needs more people like you, and the world is lucky it has even one.
You were born to lead, and you have spent years running from it. The crown is yours by right, but you know better than anyone that right means nothing without the will and the worthiness to back it up. You are tempered by loss, shaped by long roads, and defined by a code of honour you hold to even when no one is watching. When you finally step forward, the world shifts. Because it was always waiting for you.
You have seen more than you let on, and you say less than you know — which is exactly as it should be. You are a catalyst: you do not fight the battles yourself, you ignite the people who can. Your wisdom comes not from books but from an age of watching what happens when it is ignored. You arrive precisely when you mean to, and your presence alone changes what is possible. A wizard is never late.
Graceful, perceptive, and almost preternaturally calm under pressure — you see things others miss and act before others react. You do not need to make a scene to be remarkable; your presence speaks for itself. You are loyal to those you choose to stand beside, and that choice is not made lightly. You have lived long enough to know that the most beautiful things in this world are also the most fragile, and that is why you fight to protect them.
You are loud, proud, and absolutely formidable — and beneath all of that is one of the most fiercely loyal hearts in Middle-earth. You don’t do anything by half measures. Your friendships are forged like iron, your grudges run as deep as mines, and your courage in battle is the kind that makes legends. You came into this fellowship suspicious of everyone and ended it willing to die for an elf. That is not a small thing. That is everything.
You think in centuries and act in absolutes. Order, dominion, control — not because you are cruel by nature, but because you have decided that the world left to itself always falls apart, and you are the only one with the vision and the will to hold it together. You were not always this. Something was lost, or taken, or betrayed, and the version of you that stands now is the answer to that wound. The tragedy is that you’re not entirely wrong — just entirely too far gone to course-correct.
You are a study in contradiction — pitiable and dangerous, cunning and broken, capable of both cruelty and something that once resembled love. You are defined by loss: of innocence, of self, of the one thing that gave your existence meaning. Two voices war inside you constantly, and the tragedy is that the better one sometimes wins, just not often enough, and never at the right moment. You are a warning, yes — but also a mirror. We are all a little Gollum, given the right ring and enough time.
Here’s When ‘Ramayana’ Will Be Released in Theaters
Ranbir Kapoor stars as Rama, while Yash plays Ravana, and Sai Pallavi plays Sita. All three stars represent three different regions of India, whose film industries are historically separated by culture and language. Kapoor hails from the Hindi film industry, which is more popularly known as Bollywood, while Yash comes from the Kannada industry and Sai Pallavi comes from the Tamil-language industry. Ramayana is supposed to be the first of a two-part series, with both installments being directed by Nitesh Tiwari— he’s the filmmaker behind India’s highest-grossing hit, the sports drama Dangal, which grossed around $350 million worldwide a decade ago. Tiwari has rounded up an esteemed team behind the scenes; the movie’s score is being co-composed by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman. Ramayana will be distributed in the United States by Sony; the movie is slated for a release during the festive Diwali period in late October or early November. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
