Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Rise of a Legend has crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark worldwide, collecting Rs 1,033.55 crore in just eight days and becoming the 11th Indian film to achieve the milestone. The film’s grand visual world took three years to create, with production designers Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray working on its architectural settings and environments.In an interview with Variety, Subrata Chakraborty discussed the extensive research, technological challenges and creative decisions behind the film’s depiction of Ayodhya, Lanka and other locations.The project had been in development for more than five years when Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray joined the team. An international group had already prepared the initial designs under the guidance of director Nitesh Tiwari and producer Namit Malhotra. However, the Indian designers believed the visual concepts needed a stronger connection with the country’s architectural traditions.
Subrata Chakraborty wanted to Indianise the designs
The original visual blueprint involved Oscar-winning production designer Ramsey Avery. After reviewing the material, Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray decided to introduce changes that would give the settings a more distinctly Indian identity. They wanted to retain the scale of the existing concepts while drawing from the country’s artistic and architectural heritage.“Basically, what we felt was that it was more of a Western drawing. We are artistes. We decided to Indianise the designs when we took up the project. The production designers from abroad were humble. They were okay with us Indianising the designs,” Chakraborty said in an interview with Variety.The team revisited its research and studied historical structures in India and other Asian countries. The Sun Temple at Konark and architectural influences from Southeast Asia informed several design decisions. For the Pushpak Vimana, the designers retained much of the original concept and made selected modifications. Their interpretation of Janasthan also drew from regional architectural references.“To build Janasthan, we used aesthetics from Cambodia and a few other Southeast Asian references from in and around the countries of Sri Lanka,” he said.
Ramsey Avery guided the team through the technical process
Adapting the designs also meant learning a different production workflow. Subrata Chakraborty approached Namit Malhotra for guidance, after which Ramsey Avery returned to mentor the Indian designers. Avery introduced them to the Hollywood approach, where production design, cinematography and visual effects are planned together from the earliest stages.The team learned to work with Blender, 3D models and digital textures. This helped them understand how physical structures could be extended through computer-generated environments without compromising visual consistency.
Ayodhya and Lanka received contrasting visual treatments
The two kingdoms were designed to communicate very different atmospheres. Nitesh Tiwari wanted Ayodhya to appear peaceful, elegant and grand. Its colour palette was planned around cooler tones, while the architecture retained a sense of opulence.“From the director’s point of view, Ayodhya was very important. He said Ayodhya should be calm. There should be coolness in the colours, with plenty of opulence. It has to look beautiful visually,” he said.Lanka, meanwhile, needed to represent a contrasting personality. Its visual identity was shaped around the idea of ego and grandeur. “Lanka is like an ego. That is the contrast.”
Physical sets and VFX shared the workload
The proportion of physical construction and digital effects varied according to each sequence. Ayodhya’s throne room was approximately 70 percent physically constructed, with VFX accounting for the remaining 30 percent. The courtyard sequence involving Dasharath’s death dream also relied heavily on actual sets, which made up around 70 to 80 percent of the environment.The Lanka battle required a different approach, with 70 percent VFX and 30 percent physical construction. ‘Rasatala’ used both techniques in almost equal proportions. The Pushpak Vimana was predominantly digital, with only around 10 percent physically built.“The good thing is people are confused about what physical sets are and where we used VFX. We wanted viewers to be unable to tell what was set and what was VFX. That is a huge thing for us. That is a huge thing for us.”
Mathematical accuracy was crucial for realistic VFX
Subrata Chakraborty said working with green screens and digital environments demanded precise measurements. Every element had to be positioned correctly so that the visual effects could extend the physical designs convincingly.“We had to work against green screens. We had to understand how to enhance the forest and how it would blend with our design. We didn’t know where to put the elements, how to create the texture or how much to slide,” he said.“It was a mathematical film. If the mathematics was even a little off, the VFX would be off. That’s why VFX can look fake. We had to make everything mathematically accurate so that when the VFX was created after our work, it would look real.”Written by Nitesh Tiwari and Shridhar Raghavan, ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend’ features Ranbir Kapoor, Yash, Sai Pallavi, Ravi Dubey, Anupam Kher, Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor, Adinath Kothare, Arun Govil, Indira Krishnan and Lara Dutta. Yash and Ravi Dubey make their Hindi film debuts with the first part. ETimes gave 4 stars out of 5 for the film.