Namit Malhotra's ambitious cinematic project, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, is set to reach Indian audiences through a pay-per-view option on JioHotstar following its theatrical run, in a digital distribution strategy that breaks with the conventional streaming model.
Under the proposed arrangement, viewers in India will be able to purchase access to the film separately on JioHotstar after its theatrical window, rather than watch it as part of a conventional OTT subscription. The pay-per-view model could allow the platform to generate revenue directly from individual purchases, although the pricing and other details have not been announced.
The announcement was made on October 22, after the makers concluded their final leg of promotions before the film's big Diwali release. As per the production house's statement, the move is aimed at making the epic's cinematic retelling accessible to viewers across India who may not have access to theatres.
Namit Malhotra, the producer, filmmaker, founder and CEO of DNEG, said in the statement: "I believe Ramayana should be experienced on the biggest screen possible, in IMAX 3D. But our country's cinema infrastructure cannot reach everyone who holds this epic close. Ramayana belongs to every Indian, and our ambition must reflect that."
On revealing the film's official OTT platform as JioHotstar, Malhotra said the platform "has time and again shown how technology can bring a nation together through its sports and entertainment offering. That made them a natural partner to take Ramayana into people's hands and living rooms, after its theatrical run."
According to a report by Hindustan Times, the digital release is part of a partnership between JioHotstar and Prime Focus Studios, aimed at bringing the film to households across the country after its big-screen debut.
Nita M. Ambani, chairperson of JioStar, said the collaboration would help make the timeless epic accessible to families across the country, including younger viewers discovering the story for the first time. "It is our privilege to present this grand cinematic vision of Ramayana to families across the country, and introduce a new generation to its eternal values of duty, love, courage, and goodness," she said.
The film is scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release on November 5, 2026, coinciding with Diwali. It will also be released in IMAX 3D, with the makers encouraging audiences to experience the epic on the biggest screen possible before it arrives online.
Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is planned as a two-part live-action film series directed by Nitesh Tiwari. Prime Focus Studios is producing the film in collaboration with DNEG and Yash's Monster Mind Creations. The second part of the film is scheduled to release in 2027.
Ranbir Kapoor will portray Lord Rama, while Sai Pallavi will play Sita and Yash will appear as Ravana. The film also features Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Ravi Dubey as Lakshman. The supporting cast includes Arun Govil, Lara Dutta, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor and Kajal Aggarwal, among others.
The pay-per-view decision is a notable experiment in Indian film distribution. In recent years, most big-ticket Hindi films have moved from theatres to a streaming platform under a fixed licensing deal, where subscribers watch the film at no additional cost. The Ramayana model inverts that logic: the film will sit on JioHotstar, but access will require a separate payment through the platform's on-demand purchase option.
The rationale, as articulated by Malhotra, is partly philosophical and partly commercial. Philosophically, the producers argue that the Ramayana belongs to every Indian, including those in regions where cinema infrastructure is thin or where a trip to an IMAX theatre is simply not feasible. Commercially, a pay-per-view window allows the producers to monetise the film's enormous anticipated demand directly, rather than folding it into a platform's subscription arithmetic.
The strategy also reflects the scale of the investment behind the project. Conceived as a two-part epic with world-class visual effects, the film has been positioned as one of the most expensive productions in Indian cinema history. A conventional streaming sale would have required a single, enormous licensing fee; the pay-per-view route spreads the monetisation across millions of individual transactions.
Yash, who plays Ravana and co-produces the film through Monster Mind Creations, has in recent interviews urged fans not to nitpick VFX flaws ahead of the release and to watch the film with an open mind, an acknowledgement of the scrutiny that a project of this scale inevitably invites.
The theatrical release remains the centrepiece of the plan. The makers have consistently encouraged audiences to watch the epic on the big screen, and the IMAX 3D release is designed to deliver the spectacle that the pay-per-view version, for all its convenience, cannot replicate. The digital window is positioned as an extension of the theatrical run, not a replacement for it.
For JioHotstar, the partnership is a marquee content acquisition. The platform has built its reputation on large-scale live sports and entertainment events, and adding one of the most anticipated Indian films of the decade, even behind a paywall, strengthens its position in the streaming wars. Nita Ambani's framing of the collaboration around families and cultural heritage suggests the platform sees the film as more than a commercial asset.
The announcement also lands at a moment of intense competition for the Diwali box office and the broader entertainment calendar. With promotions in their final leg and the release date weeks away, the pay-per-view news has added a new talking point to the film's already saturated media coverage.
Whether the pay-per-view model succeeds will depend on the pricing, which has not yet been disclosed, and on the film's theatrical performance. If Ramayana: Rise of a Legend becomes the cultural event its makers are promising, the digital purchase option could become one of the most closely watched experiments in Indian streaming history.
What is certain is that Ramayana: Rise of a Legend has already changed the conversation around Indian film distribution. Long before its release, it has forced the industry to reckon with new questions: how a film of this scale should be priced, who gets to watch it first, and whether the country's most beloved epic can find a business model as ambitious as its storytelling.
(Reporting based on News18, CNBC-TV18 and Hindustan Times.)