Prime Focus Studios and JioHotstar have struck a pay-per-view deal for Ramayana: Part One, meaning even paying subscribers will have to buy the film separately once it leaves cinemas.
Ramayana: Part One is heading to JioHotstar, but not the way most big Hindi releases do. Prime Focus Studios and the streamer have set up what both companies are calling India's first pay-per-view offering of its kind, which means subscribers who already pay for JioHotstar will still need to buy the film separately to watch it at home.
No window length has been announced, and neither has a price. The film opens in theatres worldwide on November 5, timed to Diwali, across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and English, with IMAX 3D among the formats. Sony Pictures Entertainment is handling the global release and Karan Johar's Dharma Productions takes care of distribution in India. A Los Angeles premiere is set for October 27, ahead of the wide release.
Why pay-per-view, not subscription
Namit Malhotra, who produces through Prime Focus and founded DNEG, has been upfront that he'd rather audiences see this on the biggest screen going. "I believe Ramayana should be experienced on the biggest screen possible, in IMAX 3D," he said. But he also pointed out that cinema access in India is nowhere near universal, adding that the film "belongs to every Indian" and that the ambition has to match that. JioHotstar, he said, was the natural partner to carry the film into living rooms once its theatrical run ends.
JioStar chairperson Nita Ambani framed it in bigger terms, calling Ramayana "one of India's greatest civilisational treasures" and saying the platform's job is to use technology to put it within reach of families who might otherwise miss it. Whether that reach extends to anyone unwilling to pay twice, once for a ticket and again for the stream, is the obvious question nobody's answered yet.
The film itself is the bigger draw, of course. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Yash is Ravana, Sai Pallavi plays Sita. Sunny Deol turns up as Hanuman and Ravie Dubey as Lakshman, with Arun Govil, Lara Dutta, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor and Kajal Aggarwal filling out a cast that reads like three generations of Hindi cinema sharing one set. Nitesh Tiwari directs, working from a screenplay Shridhar Raghavan adapted from Valmiki's text, split into two parts. DNEG and Yash's Monster Mind Creations are producing alongside Prime Focus, and the score comes from Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman, which is its own kind of statement about scale. The film carries a U certificate and runs three hours fifteen minutes.
For an industry watching how OTT economics shake out post-theatrical, this is a test case worth tracking. Indian films almost never get carved out of a subscription bundle like this. If Ramayana's pay-per-view number works, don't be surprised if the next big tentpole tries the same thing. If it doesn't, JioHotstar will have learned that lesson in public, on the most expensive film it's ever touched. Pricing and the theatrical window are expected closer to the November 5 release.
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