The Business of an Epic: Budget, Screens and the Pay-Per-View Bet
India's costliest film is also its boldest commercial experiment. Jubliz follows the money, from record rights deals and global screens to advance bookings, a tax search and a brand new streaming window.
Ramayana is not only a creative leap of faith. It is a financial wager on a scale Indian cinema has never attempted. Every element of its business model, from the two film structure to the global release and an entirely new pay-per-view window, is designed to recover an investment that would have been unthinkable for an Indian film only a decade ago.
Then: how Indian budgets grew up
To understand the scale, look at the road behind it. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), made on a reported budget of around ₹250 crore, proved that an Indian epic could earn well over ₹1,500 crore worldwide. RRR (2022) and Kalki 2898 AD (2024) pushed reported budgets into the ₹500 to 600 crore range. Adipurush (2023), another Ramayana adaptation, showed the other side of the coin, when a large investment met a hostile audience reaction.
The box office ceilings rose too. Dangal, directed by Nitesh Tiwari himself, remains the reference point for India's biggest worldwide earner at roughly ₹2,000 crore, much of it from China. KGF: Chapter 2 crossed around ₹1,200 crore, and Pushpa 2 and Baahubali 2 established that a single Indian title could approach or exceed the ₹1,500 crore mark.
Ramayana arrives in that world asking the market to stretch further than ever before.
Now: what it cost
Exact figures have never been officially confirmed, and published numbers vary widely. Outlook Business reported a budget of around ₹835 crore for Part One alone, which would make it the costliest Indian film ever made. Other outlets have put the combined cost of both parts at around ₹4,000 crore, and some international reports have cited figures of US$200 to 250 million per instalment. Jubliz treats ₹835 crore as the most widely cited estimate for Part One, while noting that no official number has been released.
Whatever the precise number, the ambition is unmistakable: this is the first Indian production budgeted to compete directly with Hollywood tentpoles rather than with other Indian films.
How the money comes back
The makers have built several revenue streams before a single ticket is torn:
- Music: T-Series reportedly secured the music rights for both parts with a ₹75 crore advance, one of the largest music deals in Indian history.
- Digital and satellite: A reported ₹450 crore deal with the Star group, described as India's biggest, brings the film to JioHotstar after its theatrical run.
- Pay-per-view: In a first for the platform, JioHotstar will offer Part One as a standalone rental. Even existing subscribers will need to pay separately. The price and streaming date have not yet been announced.
- Global theatrical: Sony Pictures handles international distribution, with plans reported in August for more than 50,000 overseas screens and around 9,000 in India, together with IMAX 3D presentations.
- Languages: Dubbed versions, including an English version made with Brahma AI lip-sync technology, widen the addressable audience far beyond the usual five Indian language release.
The pay-per-view model is the most closely watched experiment. India has flirted with it before, notably when Salman Khan's Radhe premiered on a pay-per-view basis during the pandemic in 2021, but never for a film of this stature or as a deliberate window after a cinema run. It could reach audiences in towns without premium screens, yet trade commentators have warned that a paid window may also tempt viewers towards piracy.
The advance booking story
Advance sales have climbed steadily through October. By 30 October, NDTV Profit reported opening day advance bookings in India of more than ₹17 crore gross, with six days still to go. On 27 October, Koimoi ranked the film fourth among Bollywood's opening day pre-sales of 2026, behind Dhurandhar 2, Drishyam 3 and Border 2, and observed that full scale bookings had not yet opened everywhere. Trade estimates point to a Hindi opening of around ₹65 to 75 crore nett, with Sacnilk suggesting roughly ₹75 crore if bookings close strongly. IMAX demand has been singled out as unusually strong.
Overseas momentum is even more striking. Pinkvilla's 30 October breakdown put overseas pre-sales at about US$2.83 million, and suggested the film is on course for an overseas opening weekend above US$20 million. It trails Dhurandhar by around a quarter, but runs roughly 80 percent ahead of Jawan outside the Middle East. Trade sites are already asking whether it can surpass Animal's overseas opening weekend of around US$13 million. Australia is the third largest overseas market, a detail of genuine interest to Jubliz readers here.
The tax search
The campaign hit an unexpected obstacle on 7 October. The Income Tax Department searched Prime Focus offices in Mumbai, its studio in Film City, premises of its statutory auditor and Namit Malhotra's residence, with reports linking the inquiry to foreign remittances. Prime Focus confirmed the search in a regulatory filing, and its shares reportedly fell around 8 percent. Neither the department nor the company has disclosed findings, and no wrongdoing has been established. For now, it remains a reputational shadow rather than a commercial one, and it has not slowed the release.
Next: the three bets that decide everything
Ramayana's commercial case rests on three distinct wagers.
- The premium bet: that audiences will pay IMAX 3D prices for a film designed for the biggest screens, lifting average ticket prices well above the norm.
- The diaspora bet: that Indian communities in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and Europe will turn out in record numbers during Diwali week, supported by a full international distribution machine.
- The living room bet: that Indian families will rent the film at home after its theatrical run, creating a new revenue window that the rest of the industry could copy.
The first week of November will test the first two. The third will play out over the months that follow. And looming over all three is Part Two, whose release timing, whether Diwali 2027 or, as Bollywood Hungama has reported, Diwali 2028, will shape how long the franchise has to recoup its full investment.
Jubliz takeaway: If Ramayana succeeds, it will not merely be a hit. It will be proof that Indian cinema can finance, produce and sell a film on Hollywood's terms, and it will change how the next generation of Indian epics is budgeted.
