Ramayana’s success is about much more than one film’s box office. Like every game-changing hit before it, it is opening doors for the next wave of Indian cinema, and no film stands to gain more than SS Rajamouli and Mahesh Babu’s Varanasi.
How One Film Opens the Door
Indian cinema has seen this pattern before.
Baahubali turned regional cinema into Indian cinema. After it, films from every industry started working across all languages and regions, and producers gained the confidence to spend massive budgets.
Dangal’s success in China showed that Indian films could earn huge numbers in that market.
RRR took Indian cinema to a new global level, with its long run in Japan and its Oscar win opening bigger doors worldwide.
Ramayana’s Global Wave
Ramayana is now building on all of that. In India, it is performing hugely across every language and territory. Overseas, it is on a record spree in markets where Indian films have always done well, and it is also opening new territories like Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and many more countries, delivering numbers Indian cinema has never seen there.
Early next year, it heads into even bigger markets: China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
Why Varanasi Benefits the Most
Perfect timing. Ramayana releases in China, Russia, Japan and South Korea in the first quarter of 2027, just before Varanasi arrives on April 7. Global audiences who discover Indian cinema through Ramayana will be looking for the next big Indian film, and Varanasi will be right there.
Rajamouli’s global name. Thanks to RRR’s Oscar win and its run in Japan, Rajamouli is already a known name worldwide. Ramayana’s success adds fresh momentum just as his next film arrives.
The Ramayana connection. Varanasi features a full Ramayana war episode, Rama versus Kumbhakarna, which the makers have officially confirmed and which runs for around half an hour in the film. Audiences around the world who have just embraced Ramayana will already have a strong connection to this part of Varanasi, and a big Ramayana battle staged at Rajamouli’s scale will be one of the film’s biggest attractions.
A globetrotting story for everyone. Varanasi is a globetrotting adventure that moves across multiple timelines. A story like this, travelling across places and eras, has a far better chance of appealing to all kinds of audiences, from mythology lovers in India to action and adventure fans around the world.
New markets already open. The new territories Ramayana is unlocking, from Southeast Asia to the big four markets of 2027, will already have audiences and distribution networks in place when Varanasi releases.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Ramayana has shown that a big Indian epic can work hugely in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, two markets that don’t favour every film. That is a big encouraging sign for Varanasi, which will need those states to deliver too.
Bigger business. Ramayana’s numbers will give distributors and buyers in India and abroad the confidence to pay more for the next big Indian spectacle. That gives Varanasi much more business mileage, both in India and globally.
The Next Big Chapter
Ramayana has shown what an Indian film can achieve when it is built for the world. Varanasi now has the chance to take that even further, and it will begin its journey on a road that Ramayana has already paved.
