Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part One has crossed Rs 823.50 crore at the worldwide box office in just six days, storming past the Rs 800 crore mark and extending one of the most remarkable runs in Indian cinema history. The film, which opened worldwide on 5 November, continues to draw huge crowds in India and overseas, with trade analysts describing its hold as extraordinary for a film of this scale.
According to early estimates from the trade tracking site Sacnilk, the film collected Rs 94.10 crore net in India on its sixth day, Tuesday. That took its India net total to Rs 440.45 crore, with the India gross standing at Rs 526.50 crore. Overseas, the film has now collected Rs 297 crore, giving it a worldwide gross of Rs 823.50 crore in less than a week.
The sixth-day figure represents a drop of about 12.5 per cent from Monday’s Rs 107.50 crore net in India, a modest decline for a film coming off a huge opening weekend. Trade watchers say the fall is well within the normal range for a film of this size, and the fact that the film is still collecting close to Rs 100 crore a day in India alone underlines how strong its word of mouth has been.
The numbers place Ramayana in rare company. It had already crossed Rs 200 crore worldwide in two days, Rs 500 crore in four days and Rs 664 crore in five days, and it is now the fastest Indian film to reach each of those milestones. It also became the first Indian film to top the box office in the United Kingdom and Ireland, a record that points to the breadth of its appeal beyond its home market.
The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Yash as Ravana and Sai Pallavi as Sita, and it is the first instalment of a two-part retelling of the ancient epic, mounted on a scale rarely attempted in Indian cinema. Its large-format presentation, its score and its climactic sequences — including the Jatayu episode that drew particular praise in early reviews — have been credited with pulling audiences back to cinemas in large numbers.
The film’s makers have also entered it into the race for the 99th Academy Awards, submitting it for consideration in the international categories. That move, announced earlier this week, has added to the sense that the film is being positioned not only as a commercial event but as a showcase for Indian cinema on the world stage.
Trade analysts say the coming days will be decisive. The film faces its first real test as the initial wave of enthusiasm settles, and its performance over the second weekend will show whether it can sustain its pace towards Rs 1,000 crore worldwide. For now, though, the trajectory is firmly upward, and the film has already overtaken the lifetime worldwide totals of most of the biggest Indian releases of recent years.
The run has also been a boost for the wider exhibition business, which has seen footfalls rise sharply since the film’s release. Multiplex chains have reported strong advance bookings for the weekend ahead, and exhibitors say the film’s success has lifted the entire market, with other titles benefiting from the increased traffic.
For the team behind the film, the figures are a vindication of a project that was years in the making and carried enormous expectations. Whether it goes on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time will depend on how it holds in its second and third weeks, but after six days it has already rewritten the record books.
Ramayana: Part One is the first chapter of the two-part adaptation, with the second part expected to continue the story. Audiences who have seen the first instalment will now be watching closely to see how far the film’s run can go — and whether the Rs 1,000 crore mark, once thought to be a distant ambition, is now within reach.
