‘Ramayana 2 will do 10 times more’: Ram Gopal Varma claims budget of part 1 is Rs 800 cr
Ram Gopal Varma continues his championing of Ramayana, Nitesh Tiwari’s new film adaptation of the Indian epic, which has crossed Rs 1288 crore mark at the worldwide box office. He also refuted the claims doing the rounds that Ramayana Part 1 has many hundreds of crores to make before it can break even with its estimated average budget of Rs 2300 crore, given that both parts of Ramayana have a combined budget of $500 million (Rs 4700 crore).
“I got to know that the actual cost of Part 1 is a little less than Rs 800 crore, and that includes mutually beneficial deals, global tax benefits, subsidy elements, etc., which will all eventually bring the cost to less than that. And not only me, but any reasonably experienced filmmaker, by seeing the film, can see the cost can’t be more than that,” wrote RGV on his X handle on Sunday morning.
The filmmaker also called those “stupid” for assuming that both parts have equal costs. “That’s like thinking the cost before interval and post-interval will be the same in a film. I know of films where 50% of the cost was just the climax,” he argued. Varma also reminded the “self-proclaimed experts” of Ramayana co-producer Namit Malhotra’s plans to roll out merchandise, theme parks, and gaming, which will serve as additional revenue streams.
Ram Gopal Varma further claimed Ramayana’s budget will be recovered by just Part 1. “Going by how it’s running now, it is obvious that Namit Malhotra is going to cover the entire cost of Part 1, or maybe both parts, in Part 1 itself and then there’s the non-theatrical of part 1 and all revenue inflows of part 2,” claimed the filmmaker. “So, in other words, Namit Malhotra can build his own Pushpak Vimaan and start dumping money into innumerable extraordinary ventures, which all the biggest production companies from north to south couldn’t do till now, and then he can surpass even the biggest of the biggest Hollywood biggies,” he added.
Varma even hailed Malhotra as the “biggest filmmaker” since the inception of Hindi cinema with Dadasaheb Phalke’s 1913 silent film Raja Harishchandra, which released over 110 years ago. He also predicted that since Ramayana part 2 will have majority of the big action set pieces, it’s likely to do “10 times more” business than what part 1 would.
“If KGF 2 did around 5 times more than KGF 1, I am convinced that Ramayana 2 will do 10 times more than Ramayana part 1. If you disagree, we will talk in 2028,” concluded Varma.
Prashanth Neel’s 2018 Kannada action thriller KGF: Chapter 1, starring Yash, amassed over Rs 250 crore at the worldwide box office. Its 2022 sequel, KGF: Chapter 2, went on to earn five times globally, at Rs 1250 crore.
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Demonstrating the reach of Ramayana, and its ability to cut across all demographics, Ram Gopal Varma revealed that his mother has been buying tickets for the house help and watchmen of the building she lives in, which he confessed she didn’t do even for the “best of my films”. Varma is best known for helming seminal crime dramas like Satya (1998), Company (2002), and Sarkar 2005), among others.
Ramayana box office collection so far
Ramayana Part 1 released on November 5, three days before Diwali. However, its collections picked up only after the festival, from its first Monday (day 5) at the box office. Within eight days, it became only the 11th Indian film to surpass the major milestone of Rs 1000 crore worldwide. It’s only gone from strength to strength since, and has amassed over Rs 1288 crore globally so far, within 10 days.
Co-produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, Ramayana stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Yash as Ravana among others. Its second part is slated to release in cinemas worldwide in 2028. The combined budget of both the films, the producers confirmed, is more than Rs 4000 crore, inclusive of international marketing costs.
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