The ancient epic is heading to cinemas — and tickets go on sale tomorrow. Dharma Productions announced on Monday, 19 October 2026 that advance bookings for its upcoming film Ramayana open the following day, framing the project with a declaration that has already set social media alight: 'Our Truth. Our History.'

Nitesh Tiwari at the helm of an epic with weight behind it

The film is directed by Nitesh Tiwari, whose track record makes him one of the most credible choices imaginable for this assignment. His previous films — Dangal (2016) and Chhichhore (2019) — each found that rare commercial-critical sweet spot that studios spend entire careers chasing. Both leaned on deeply Indian stories told with technical precision and emotional intelligence. Ramayana now asks him to operate on a canvas considerably larger than either.

Attached as a key producing force is Namit Malhotra, the executive behind Prime Focus Studios, a name synonymous with visual-effects-heavy, technically ambitious Indian and international productions. His involvement signals the kind of production investment that a story of this scale demands — and arguably requires.

Bollywood's race to own the Ramayana moment

Dharma's announcement lands in the middle of what has quietly become a crowded field. Multiple Ramayana adaptations were announced across Bollywood in the mid-2020s, each studio positioning its version as the definitive cinematic retelling of the ancient Sanskrit epic. The competition has turned what might have been a single cultural event into an industry-wide reckoning: which production house can bring the scale, the reverence, and the box-office numbers to actually deliver?

The marketing language Dharma has chosen — 'Our Truth. Our History.' — is a deliberate staking of ground. It speaks directly to audiences who want the Ramayana treated not as mythology to be reimagined freely, but as a cultural inheritance to be honoured. That framing carries both enormous commercial upside and equally enormous expectation.

Why tomorrow's booking numbers will tell the real story

Advance booking data is now the film industry's most reliable early-verdict mechanism, and for a project of this profile, the first 24 hours of sales will be watched closely by every exhibitor from Mumbai to Chennai. Strong early numbers would confirm that audience appetite for a big-screen Ramayana is not just hypothetical enthusiasm on social media — it is convertible demand. A slow opening to bookings, on the other hand, would force studios to recalibrate their release-window strategy.

No official theatrical release date or complete lead-cast announcement has been confirmed in the post. But the advance-booking launch itself is a statement: Dharma Productions and Nitesh Tiwari are ready to let audiences vote with their wallets.

India has been waiting for a cinematic Ramayana worthy of the name. The box office opens tomorrow to find out if the wait is nearly over.