In May 2017, Madhu Mantena, Allu Aravind, and Namit Malhotra announced the live-action feature film on the Ramayana. Later in 2019, Nitesh Tiwari (Dangal) and Ravi Udyawar (Mom fame) were brought on board to helm this multi-part ambitious project, with War and Pathaan screenplay writer Shridhar Raghavan writing the script. It has been four years since the directors started working on it, but the film hasn’t seen the light of day yet. And now the latest buzz suggests further delay in the film as one of the previous supposed cast members has backed out of it, putting it back to the casting stage again.
Industry sources have revealed that Hrithik Roshan has walked out of this long-in-the-making epic retelling of the Ramayana. The superstar was set to play Ravana alongside Ranbir Kapoor’s Ram, but his priorities seem to have changed over the last year, and he is no longer keen to do negative roles. "Hrithik has left the Ramayana because he doesn’t want to play corrupt characters. After the failure of Vikram Vedha, where he played a villainous role, Hrithik has realized that his fans prefer seeing him as a larger-than-life hero and hence wants to stay away from negative roles for some time. Furthermore, he doesn’t want to touch any religion-based project at this time given the dangerously disturbing hoo-ha about religious sentiments in the recent past. Hrithik talked to the makers and amicably ousted himself from the project," a source close to the project told us, adding that Ranbir Kapoor, however, is still committed to the film.
After Hrithik’s exit, Nitesh Tiwari and Madhu Mantena have started their search for Ravana again, and sources say they are considering South Indian stars to fill the shoes. The makers had apparently approached Pushpa hero Allu Arjun for this role, but he declined the offer. And now they have initiated talks with KGF’s Rocky aka Yash to have him play the demon king of Lanka in this Pan-India epic. Yash is said to have shown his interest and was impressed with the director’s pre-visualization, but he hasn’t given his nod yet. The Kannada superstar apparently has four scripts on the table, including Ramayana, and will take his final call only after a month. Sources say the Ramayana producers are hoping to get Yash on board; however, it is unclear if this will be Yash's next project, as he is also working on another pan-Indian film with a South director. Nitesh and his team have reportedly also approached Sai Pallavi to play Sita’s role, but she is not confirmed yet either.
Ramayana is believed to be the costliest film coming out of India ever. The pre-production has been going on for the past two years, with over 200 artists from across the globe working round the clock on various aspects of this live-action trilogy. Nitesh Tiwari, Ravi Udyawar, Shridhar Raghavan, and the producers have been working hard to present Ramayana on a never-attempted-before scale and are doing an extensive amount of research to create a world that will make Indians proud of their epics. They are going all out to put together a world-class team to narrate the traditional Ramayana in all its glory and make a cinematic magnum opus that’s bigger than anything Indian cinema has ever made. The makers are expected to commence shooting this three-part film at the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Hrithik Roshan reportedly has another reason to leave Ramayana. The Super 30 actor is apparently doing a massive Pan-India film with Prabhas for Pushpa producer Mythri Movie Makers. War and Pathaan director Siddharth Anand will helm this film after completing Fighter. We will update more on this film once we get confirmation. Hrithik is reportedly also planning to take Krrish 3 into production later this year.
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