Can Ramayana achieve what RRR, Baahubali and Dangal couldn’t: Make Indian cinema a truly global mainstream force?
Indian cinema has conquered several international markets over the decades. Shah Rukh Khan enjoys extraordinary popularity across the world. Aamir Khan’s Dangal became a sensation in China. S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali franchise demonstrated that an Indian spectacle could attract audiences across linguistic boundaries, while RRR went a step further, earning international acclaim and winning an Oscar for the song ‘Naatu Naatu’.
Yet, one elusive dream remains.
Can an Indian film become a truly global mainstream blockbuster, attracting not merely the Indian diaspora or a passionate niche audience, but ordinary moviegoers across North America, Europe, East Asia and other major international markets? As Ramayana: Part One prepares for its theatrical release on November 5, that question has become particularly relevant.
Could Nitesh Tiwari’s ambitious adaptation of the Indian epic achieve what even some of the country’s most celebrated international successes could not accomplish on a sustained, worldwide scale?
India has produced global hits. But has it produced a global franchise?
There is an important difference between a film becoming successful internationally and becoming part of global mainstream popular culture.
Dangal achieved phenomenal success in China, demonstrating that an Indian film could connect emotionally with audiences who were not necessarily familiar with its stars or cinematic traditions. RRR attracted attention in international markets, generated enthusiastic responses from critics and filmmakers, and developed a passionate following beyond the Indian diaspora. Baahubali established a benchmark for Indian spectacle filmmaking and helped transform the domestic industry’s understanding of pan-India cinema.
These achievements were historic in their own ways.
However, their international success was not identical to the global reach enjoyed by franchises such as Avatar, Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.
Those properties became mainstream theatrical events across multiple territories, supported by extensive marketing, broad distribution and audiences that did not need a cultural connection to their countries of origin. This is the next frontier for Indian cinema.
And Ramayana has certain advantages that could make it an unusually interesting contender.
A story that already has universal themes
One of the biggest challenges for Indian films entering unfamiliar markets is cultural accessibility.
A film may depend heavily on local references, established star images, humour, social conventions or political and historical context that overseas audiences do not immediately understand.
Ramayana certainly has a deeply Indian cultural identity. But its central themes are universal. International audiences do not necessarily need prior knowledge of the Ramayana to understand the emotional stakes.
However, accessibility will depend on how effectively the film introduces its world, relationships and characters. The film must establish the context through compelling storytelling rather than excessive exposition.
The real battle is distribution
There is a tendency to assume that a film becomes global simply because it is dubbed into multiple languages. That is not how international box-office success works. Dubbing can make a film accessible. It does not automatically make people buy tickets.
For Ramayana to become a genuine international crossover event, its distributors would need to secure meaningful theatrical exposure outside the traditional Indian-film circuit. That means more than scheduling shows in cinemas located near large Indian communities.
It means obtaining attractive showtimes, premium screens, sufficient marketing visibility and access to moviegoers who may never have watched an Indian film before.
A Hollywood blockbuster can reach thousands of screens worldwide through established distribution networks. An Indian film seeking similar exposure must compete for those screens against globally recognised franchises. This is where the involvement of an international distribution partner could become especially important.
But even an extensive release would not guarantee success. The film would need to generate demand among audiences unfamiliar with its stars.
Can Ranbir Kapoor become a global face?
Ranbir Kapoor is a major star in India, while Yash has developed a formidable pan-India following through KGF. But neither possesses the same level of recognition among mainstream international audiences as Hollywood’s biggest franchise stars. Paradoxically, this could make Ramayana an interesting experiment.
The film’s international marketing need not depend entirely on the popularity of its actors. Instead, it could sell the extraordinary scale of the story, its mythology, characters, visual effects and emotional conflicts.
In that sense, the property itself could become the star.
The China lesson from Dangal
The success of Dangal in China offers a valuable lesson.
The film did not become a phenomenon there simply because it featured Aamir Khan. Its emotional themes of family, ambition, gender expectations and sporting achievement connected with audiences.
It proved that culturally specific Indian stories can travel when their emotional conflicts are accessible. However, Dangal‘s extraordinary Chinese performance also demonstrates the importance of individual markets.
A film can achieve enormous overseas collections through exceptional success in one territory without necessarily becoming a mainstream blockbuster everywhere. For Ramayana, the more meaningful international achievement would be sustained theatrical interest across several unrelated markets.
A strong opening among Indian audiences in North America would be encouraging. But significant attendance from non-Indian viewers during subsequent weeks would be a more revealing measure of crossover appeal.
Ramayana has an opportunity
Ramayana has an opportunity to test whether Indian cinema can move from occasional international breakthroughs to building a globally recognised franchise. But the benchmark should not simply be a record worldwide gross.
The more meaningful questions are whether the film can attract audiences beyond the Indian diaspora, secure mainstream international theatrical exposure, sustain word of mouth and generate interest in its sequel across multiple countries.
Baahubali changed the scale of Indian filmmaking. Dangal demonstrated its emotional appeal in a major overseas market. RRR helped Indian spectacle earn extraordinary international recognition.
Could Ramayana bring these achievements together? That remains to be seen.
But if it succeeds, the biggest headline may not be that an Indian film has broken another box-office record.
It could be that the world has finally begun treating an Indian cinematic franchise as a mainstream global event.
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