Mythical beasts, almighty gods, new technology: The epic blockbuster that could be India's answer to The Odyssey

The Ramayana is one of India's most famous stories – and now the heroic epic has been adapted into two mega-budget films that the team behind it are hoping will be a global event.

This year, amid the hit superhero movies and kids' animations, an adaptation of an ancient poem involving mythical beasts, almighty gods and a hero toting a bow and arrow has been a smash at the box office: Christopher Nolan's stirring take on Homer's Odyssey. 

But it may not be the only many-thousand-year-old epic verse to become a big-screen sensation this year. That's, at least, what the team behind a new two-part adaptation of Hindu poem the Ramayana will be hoping. The first part is set to be released globally in November, to coincide with the Hindu Diwali festival, and it's been produced on a budget that is unprecedented for an Indian film.

The Ramayana is believed to have been written around the 4BC by Valmiki, a poet and maharishi who composed nearly 24,000 shlokas (verses) telling the tale. It centres on Rama, a prince and avatar of the Hindu god of preservation Vishnu, whose wife Sita is kidnapped by the wicked king Ravana, leaving Rama with the task of rescuing her. 

The story has been adapted many times before, and more than two billion people around the world are thought to be familiar with it. But it has never been told on quite such a scale as this. Sony Pictures recently came on board as international distributors. A-list Indian film stars Ranbir Kapoor (Rama) and Yash (Ravana) are in leading roles. Hollywood composers Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman are on the soundtrack. 

And a reported $200 to 250 million (£147.5m to £184m) has been spent on Ramayana, with a similar budget attached to its sequel (due to be released in November 2027). That makes them both easily the most expensive Indian films ever made, way more than the $68 million (£50m) spent on the next most expensive film, 2024's Kalki 2898 AD. The total amount spent on the two forthcoming Ramayana films is double the combined budget of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2, and not far below that of the entire Hobbit trilogy ($623m or £460m).

The film's producer and mastermind Namit Malhotra talks about Ramayana as a global event, aimed at audiences everywhere. "This was always conceived to be for the world," he tells the BBC. "From India, for the world."

As evidenced by the titles in the trailer and on all the posters for the first film, this is "Namit Malhotra's Ramayana", a visually splendid epic that places Malhotra's expertise in visual effects front and centre. The son of a Bollywood producer and grandson of a cinematographer, Malhotra started a VFX company – now known as Double Negative, or DNEG – in his dad's garage in Mumbai aged 19. The company has since worked on many films – including Blade Runner 2049, Oppenheimer, all three Dune films, and, yes, The Odyssey itself – and won a total of eight Oscars. 

Malhotra's name is on the posters, but the acclaimed Nitesh Tiwari is Ramayana's director. He notes the recent success of Indian cinema worldwide, citing such........

© BBC