{"id":675538,"date":"2026-11-05T08:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675538\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T08:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T08:04:09","slug":"ranbir-kapoor-yashs-ramayana-makers-on-epic-rahman-zimmer-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/675538\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranbir Kapoor, Yash’s ‘Ramayana’ Makers on Epic, Rahman-Zimmer Score"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs \u201cRamayana<\/a> Part 1\u201d opens worldwide on Nov. 5, producer Namit Malhotra says the decision to adapt the Indian epic at this scale came once the talent, experience and filmmaking muscle needed to do the story justice were finally in place.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Nitesh Tiwari (\u201cDangal,\u201d \u201cChhichhore\u201d), the first of two films stars Ranbir Kapoor<\/a> as Rama, the prince sent into exile whose wife Sita (Sai Pallavi) is abducted by Ravana (Yash<\/a>), the king of Lanka. The score unites A.R. Rahman<\/a> and Hans Zimmer on an Indian film for the first time. T-Series is the music label, and Amazon Music is the music streaming partner.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have contributed to some of the biggest films in the world, and I felt, why shouldn\u2019t we bring that same ambition to \u2018Ramayana\u2019? Of course, that comes with a tremendous responsibility because of what Lord Ram means to so many people,\u201d Malhotra tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tMalhotra is the founder and CEO of DNEG, the visual effects company that has won eight Oscars, most recently for \u201cDune: Part Two.\u201d DNEG and its sister company ReDefine are handling the visual effects on \u201cRamayana,\u201d which Malhotra\u2019s Prime Focus Studios produces with Yash\u2019s Monster Mind Creations.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the producer, any global reach has to start with staying faithful to the source. When he first met Zimmer, the composer\u2019s immediate interest was in why the \u201cRamayana\u201d still resonates with people thousands of years on. \u201cThat connection is what we have to honor. We have artists from across the world bringing their best to it, with the hope that Indian audiences feel proud and audiences discovering \u2018Ramayana\u2019 for the first time understand why it is so special to us,\u201d Malhotra says.<\/p>\n

\n\tTiwari says the opportunity was to bring viewers closer to a story they already love, through intimate performances as well as cinematic scale. \u201cThere is an enormous difference between knowing that something happened and feeling what it meant to the people involved. That is where my attention has been: the relationships, the difficult choices and the emotions within those moments,\u201d he says. \u201cNamit\u2019s vision has given us the means to realize this world on an extraordinary scale. My responsibility is to make sure audiences feel connected to the people who inhabit it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe characters and major events of the \u201cRamayana\u201d are familiar to millions, which leaves the director with little room for plot surprises.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKnowing the outcome doesn\u2019t necessarily lessen the emotion. We return to stories we love because they continue to make us feel something, and sometimes our understanding of them changes as we grow older,\u201d Tiwari says. \u201cThe discovery can lie in a character\u2019s reaction, an exchange between two people or the weight of a decision. If you are fully invested in that moment, knowing what comes next can actually make it more moving. My job is to make those moments feel immediate and truthful, so the audience experiences the journey rather than simply recognizes the events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHis earlier films, he says, showed him how hard audiences respond to the truth of a relationship \u2013 a small gesture between a parent and child, or a moment between friends. \u201cThe scale is vastly different, and the cultural responsibility is considerable, but I still have to ask whether a scene feels honest and whether we care about the people in it,\u201d Tiwari says. \u201cHowever ambitious the filmmaking becomes, you cannot lose your attention to those details. They are what give the larger moments their emotional weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMusic was central to Malhotra\u2019s plan from day one, and it is also a personal passion. \u201cWhen I thought about who could bring that vision to life, it was A.R. Rahman and Hans Zimmer. There was no plan B,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat excited us was the possibility of creating a new sound together. I would tell A.R. Rahman that I wanted the emotional familiarity of the music we love, expressed in a melody of today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe score was recorded with an orchestra at AIR Studios in London, where Malhotra watched Indian and Western musicians work on the story together and wished everyone could share the experience. \u201cHearing their compositions come alive with the orchestra in London was extraordinary. It made me feel that the music could carry the emotion of \u2018Ramayana\u2019 to people everywhere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the start, the producer saw music as one of the strongest ways to connect audiences with the film before they reached a cinema, and the first job was writing songs people would want to come back to. Each track has been given its own release window, starting with \u201cJai Jai Ram,\u201d which arrived on Sept. 14 to coincide with the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Seeing audiences embrace it was deeply rewarding for Malhotra. \u201cI called A.R. Rahman and said, you have had so many songs that people love, but this is my first with you,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ambition, he says, is for the songs, performances and events around the album to reach people worldwide and become memorable experiences in their own right. \u201cWhether something becomes a cultural moment is ultimately for people to decide. If these songs become part of their celebrations, their prayers or their everyday lives, that would mean an enormous amount to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTiwari says he always comes back to what a scene needs \u2013 what the character is feeling and what the audience should take from that moment \u2013 which decides where music belongs and how much room it gets. \u201cWith A.R. Rahman and Hans Zimmer, the conversations are guided by that emotional purpose. There are moments that invite a powerful musical expression and others where a restrained passage or silence can be more affecting,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, the balance is right when the music draws you further into the scene without making you conscious of how it is doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director also has a say in how the songs are introduced, working alongside the producers and the music and marketing teams. His focus is on what each song reveals, which visuals frame it and what stays reserved for the cinema. \u201cA song may be someone\u2019s first introduction to our film, so it should communicate its emotion and spirit honestly,\u201d Tiwari says. \u201cAt the same time, we want audiences to discover more when they encounter it within the story. Ideally, the release creates a connection, and the film gives that connection greater meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking ahead to the second installment, Malhotra says the first film has to give audiences an experience that stays with them, with their investment in the characters the strongest reason to return. \u201cMusic can carry that emotional connection between the two films. A song or a few notes of a theme can bring you straight back to a character, a feeling or a moment,\u201d he says. \u201cMy hope is that people keep listening and that the music becomes part of their lives in that interval. Then, when they come back for the second film, they are returning to a world they already feel connected to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe soundtrack also sits at the heart of Amazon Music\u2019s push into Indian film music. Indian-language music accounts for around 70% of what the service\u2019s customers in India stream, and for more than two years the company has been building standalone launches for major film albums, both live and on the platform. It brought Hanumankind, Madhubanti Bagchi and Jasmine Sandlas together on one stage in Mumbai for \u201cDhurandhar,\u201d whose songs then stayed in its 50 Most Played chart long after. It launched the \u201cBorder 2\u201d album at the INS Kadamba naval base in Karwar, and staged similar events for \u201cParam Sundari\u201d and \u201cTere Ishk Mein.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAmazon Music is becoming the destination where India\u2019s biggest film albums break,\u201d says Rishabh Gupta, general manager of Amazon Music India. \u201cStreaming services are becoming collaborators in culture, not just a place where music rests, and \u2018Ramayana\u2019 is the biggest example of that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cRamayana,\u201d the streamer hosted an Oct. 21 celebration at the Chennai Trade Centre where Rahman performed songs from the film live, joined onstage by Kapoor, Pallavi and Yash. It is also rolling out a short-form series on Instagram and YouTube, including \u201cDecoding Ramayana with A.R. Rahman,\u201d and has built a dedicated destination for the album on the service, along with four new playlists named for characters from the epic. Because Amazon Music operates in more than 50 countries, each song goes live abroad at the same moment it does in India.<\/p>\n

\n\tGupta says listening data helps show which songs are landing and with whom, though decisions on what to release and when stay with the filmmakers and T-Series. \u201cIn many ways, the music is the film\u2019s first trailer, and a song people love is the best invitation to the theater,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tT-Series\u2019 Bhushan Kumar describes the album as more than a conventional film soundtrack, one that carries the legacy of one of India\u2019s most revered epics to audiences around the world. \u201cWith A.R. Rahman and Hans Zimmer coming together, we endeavor to honor its Indian roots while creating a distinctive musical experience that resonates with contemporary and international audiences,\u201d he says. \u201cOur partnership with Amazon Music further strengthens this vision by creating opportunities for focused discovery and connecting the soundtrack with listeners across markets. Ultimately, our aspiration is for the music to transcend the film and become part of a lasting cultural and emotional experience for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmazon Music gauges a partnership by engagement over time rather than by launch week \u2013 whether listeners keep returning after release, and whether the album leads them to music they hadn\u2019t played before. \u201cFor \u2018Ramayana,\u2019 the real success will be when the songs are still being played long after the film leaves theaters \u2013 at festivals, in family routines, and as a way into Indian music for listeners around the world,\u201d Gupta says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As \u201cRamayana Part 1\u201d opens worldwide on Nov. 5, producer Namit Malhotra says the decision to adapt the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146462,93,61,60,270,35799,4783,63526],"class_list":["post-675538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-a-r-rahman","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-ramayana","tag-ranbir-kapoor","tag-yash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}