- Ranbir Kapoor was always the first and only choice for Lord Rama in Ramayana
- Producer Namit Malhotra confirmed no other actors were seriously considered for Rama
- Yash was cast as Ravana after his success with KGF Chapter 2 and a meeting in LA
The cast of Ramayana has been one of the biggest talking points since the announcement of the mega film. Over the years, multiple reports claimed that several top stars, including Mahesh Babu, were linked to the project, specifically to play the role of Lord Rama.
Producer Namit Malhotra and director Nitesh Tiwari have now cleared the air. They revealed that there was never any confusion about the role because Ranbir Kapoor was always their first and only choice.
Speaking to Screen Rant, Namit Malhotra explained, “After Nitesh and the team had sort of really done their polish on the script, we were incredibly excited about what we were going to make.”
“I think for both of us, we wanted to see Lord Rama being essayed by Ranbir. He was a natural choice, if we had to really put option A, B, C.”
“He's not an easy actor to cast. He's a big star and who knows what he was doing back in the day. So we were like, before we could even go to who's option two, who's option three, option one is him and let's see if we can get him. If he says no, then we'll go to the next but at least make sure that we give it our best shot.”
Nitesh Tiwari explained that there was no second or third choice. Reacting to this, Ranbir Kapoor jokingly said that the makers didn't have any other option now.
Namit Malhotra further said that Yash being cast as Ravana in Ramayana happened in a very natural way. Around that time, Yash had released KGF Chapter 2 and his popularity became massive across the country. Namit, then living in London and Los Angeles, happened to meet Yash during one of his visits to LA.
During their meeting, Namit showed him the vision and world they were creating for Ramayana. After watching Yash's performance in KGF, Namit felt he had the powerful screen presence needed to play Ravana.
Their discussions went well and Yash became excited about the vision of the film. He not only agreed to play the villain but also joined the project as a producer.
Other than Ranbir Kapoor and Yash, Ramayana also features Sai Pallavi, Ravi Dubey, Sunny Deol and Vivek Oberoi.