Ramayana’s producer, Namit Malhotra, shook the internet when he said that the budget of his upcoming magnum opus is Rs 4000 crore.

While Ramayana may boast the highest budget for any Indian film to date, another project based on one of Lord Vishnu’s avatars is quietly making waves and revenue, despite being an animated feature.

The name of this movie is Mahavatar Narsimha and it has already made over 7 crore in Hindi and is going strong at the ticket windows.

© Homnale Films

The director of Ramayana, Ashwin Kumar, recently commented on Ranbir Kapoor’s magnum opus and said that we have to make deeper-rooted stories in our culture.

In a recent interview with Screen, Ashwin said, “ It’s never enough. There have been so many outtakes and renditions of the same stories. But when you do it based on the shastras authentically, keeping the spirit and the divinity alive, then the idea is to resonate at not just the individual level, but at the soul level. So that the message, impression, and philosophy go deep into the culture and stay there for a long time. Long ago, you had sculptures in temples, toli performing natak across cities, and the guru-shishya parampara telling these stories from one generation to another. But the times, the media, and the expression have changed, yet the spirit remains the same. And that’s what we seek to do.”

He added, “For us, Narsimha Swami is our hero. There’s a pro and con to everything. So from where I see it, in India, we have a habit of projecting the God onto the actor and the actor onto the God. That’s something which is difficult to escape. Since we went with animation, we were able to move away from that. That’s an advantage we have.”

© World Of Ramayana

Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, Ramayana boasts a powerful cast including Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Sunny Deol, Yash and more.

The film will be released in two instalments, with the first part slated for release on Diwali 2026.