Here’s how Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is looking to build a global franchise
When everyone knows the broad storyline of your upcoming caper, how do you get the audiences into the theatres? That was perhaps director Nitesh Tiwari’s biggest dilemma with the ambitious Ramayana: Rise of a Legend which hits theatres later this week. His big gambit with the trailer release had backfired. Audiences trolled the makers for all sorts of things — from casting slips to VFX and CGI concerns to lip sync and dubbing rumours.
Undeterred, producer Namit Malhotra and director Tiwari are pulling out all the stops to position it as a multi-format global fantasy franchise modelled after Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. The creators have said the film is “just the beginning” of a broader intellectual property ecosystem. Industry reports put the movie’s marketing budget at Rs 375 crore. Pratik Gupta, co-founder, Zoo Media & FoxyMoron, says Ramayana would be India’s first real attempt at launching a global franchise.
“No Indian film has ever been sold at this altitude. It makes the movie impossible to ignore,” Gupta says. There is already a lot of buzz around the `4,000-crore two-part adaptation. Distributed internationally by Sony Pictures, it is expected to hit 59,000 screens, in 100-plus countries, of which 50,000 are overseas screens. The film’s marketers have adopted a slightly unconventional approach, focusing on digital and on-ground activation to generate curiosity and intrigue without giving much away.
The promotions include cast interviews on platforms like Comic-Con, IGN and even YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson aka Mr Beast. Shahir Muneer, founder & CEO, Divo, says Ramayana’s ambition is clear — to reach audiences beyond moviegoers in the country and beyond the Indian diaspora. “Our biggest films have largely built their business around these two audiences. When production budgets move to a substantially higher level, the commercial opportunity depends on attracting a crossover audience as well,” says Muneer.
With the release coinciding with the Diwali weekend, when viewers look out for “family” movies, industry pundits expect it to cross `150 crore globally on the opening day. As of November 1, Ramayana: Part 1 had grossed Rs 35.28 crore in overall advance bookings across India (source; Sacnilk) with four days remaining until its theatrical release on November 5. Gautam Dutta, CEO, revenue and operations, PVR INOX, attributes the momentum to a combination of factors — a story that is familiar to generations, a starry cast and the scale of the promised cinematic experience.
“The film has the potential to create a significant moment for theatrical exhibition,” says Dutta. The movie’s strongest promise lies in taking a familiar story and presenting it to a global audience as a cinematic experience, adds Muneer. “The scale, cast and creative team have built visibility around that promise.” Great expectations When the audience already knows the plot, marketing strategies must pivot from what the story is all about to how the story is told and experienced, say experts.
The auteur becomes the brand — audiences shell out for a ticket not just to see a story, but to see a Christopher Nolan or a Baz Luhrmann’s version of it. But will the trailer trolling throw a spanner in the works? Gupta says, in hindsight, the decision to make the massive `4,000 crore budget the headline point in the run-up stage was the villain of the piece. “Ambition sells, but the moment the number leads, every frame has to defend it.
Let the craft imply the scale. Marvel and Lord of the Rings earned their spectacle over years of universe-building,” he adds. Mehul Gupta, co-founder & CEO, SoCheers, notes that audiences tend to be deeply connected to a film, especially one steeped in Indian culture like Ramayana. He commends the movie’s marketing team for responding well to initial feedback and refining the subsequent promotional material. “The challenge is to take something deeply rooted in India and make it resonate with the world, without losing what makes it distinctive,” he adds.
