Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: 6.5 Years on One Fight Scene, 50 Designs for Pushpak Vimana
The Ravana-Jatayu fight sequence in Ramayana took six and a half years to complete — six years from the moment Nitesh Tiwari first briefed artists to the final frame. That’s not a typo. It’s the length of time the director spent refining one battle scene, driven by an obsession with authenticity.
In a candid conversation with the cast and crew, including Ranbir Kapoor, Yash, Rakul Preet Singh, and Ravi Dubey, Tiwari revealed the depth of effort behind the visuals. ‘You know how much time it has taken us to finish the Ravan-Jatayu fight?’ he asked, pausing for effect. ‘From the time I briefed the previous artists to the time we finished the work on it, it’s six and a half years.’ The room fell silent.
He didn’t stop there. ‘I can go on and on about it for an hour just to tell you how much effort went into making it from scratch.’ Thousands, he said, had worked on it. Not just animators. Conceptualists.
Engineers. Dreamers. All chasing a single truth: that something mythical could feel real. The reason?
The Pushpak Vimana. Designing it took two years. Close to 50 versions were created before the final one was locked. ‘We had assumed it would be something like this,’ Tiwari explained, gesturing toward early sketches, ‘and the fight was choreographed in that manner.’ But when the final design shifted, more angular, more grounded, less fantastical, the choreography had to follow.
Every movement recalibrated. Every impact re-simulated. ‘We wanted some kind of science to go into it,’ he said. ‘Because I believe, and we all believe, there was science behind everything that happened around that time.’ The scrutiny is fierce.
Social media dissected every frame as soon as assets dropped. Ranbir Kapoor stepped in, defending the team against quick judgments. ‘You do feel bad when sometimes,’ he said, ‘and it happens so much more now, you release something, and the first thing people say is, “Oh, it’s AI. Oh, it’s this, oh, it’s that.”’ He paused.
‘But actually, there are thousands of people sitting behind it, day in and day out, tirelessly working for hours just to get one frame right.’ The film arrives in cinemas on November 5, 2026. No shortcuts. No excuses. Just the sky, the clash, and the weight of a thousand drafts.
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