Ramayana: Rise of a Legend arrived in cinemas on November 5, 2026, carrying the weight of the biggest budget in Indian cinema history, a cast led by Ranbir Kapoor and Yash, and a wave of positive reviews. By every measure of scale, it was built to shatter records. Yet when the first-day box office numbers came in, the film landed behind a movie that had been widely criticised three years earlier: Prabhas’ Adipurush. The gap was not small. Ramayana collected ₹64.85 crore net in India on its opening day, while Adipurush had opened with ₹86.75 crore net in 2023. The question is simple and uncomfortable for the industry: how did a better-reviewed, bigger-budget film with two major stars fail to match the opening of a film that became a cautionary tale? The answer sits at the intersection of regional star power, marketing choices, and the long shadow of Adipurush itself.
The Opening Day Numbers Side by Side
Ramayana released across roughly 25,200 shows in India and collected ₹64.85 crore net, with a gross of ₹77.50 crore. The Hindi version did the heavy lifting with ₹47.50 crore net. The Kannada version, featuring Yash as Ravana, earned ₹7.25 crore. The Telugu version brought in ₹6 crore, followed by Tamil at ₹2.60 crore and Malayalam at ₹1.50 crore.
Adipurush, released on June 16, 2023, opened with ₹86.75 crore net across all languages. Its strongest market was Telugu, which alone contributed approximately ₹48 crore net on day one. The Hindi version added ₹37.25 crore net. The film was mounted on a reported budget of ₹550 crore and had secured around 10,000 screens globally on its opening day.
The scale difference is striking. Ramayana Part 1 has been reported to carry a budget of ₹1,600 crore, making it the most expensive Indian production to date. Its distribution deal with Sony Pictures gave it access to 50,000 screens overseas, a number that dwarfs the international footprint of almost any Indian film in recent memory. In India, it reached 9,000 screens, higher than any film in the multiplex era. Despite this, the final opening-day footfall for Ramayana stood at around 25 lakh tickets, compared with 55 lakh tickets for Adipurush.
The answer lies in a combination of misfired marketing for Ramayana and the tsunami that is Telugu fandom in the case of Adipurush.
— Hindustan Times box office analysis
Prabhas and the Telugu Wave That Adipurush Rode
The single biggest factor behind Adipurush’s opening-day advantage was the Telugu market. Prabhas built a devoted following across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana through the Baahubali films, and that fandom turned out in force on day one, regardless of the film’s eventual reception. The Telugu version of Adipurush earned roughly ₹48 crore net on its first day, a figure that Ramayana’s Telugu version (₹6 crore net) could not come close to matching.
Ramayana features Yash, a star with enormous pull in Karnataka, but his role is that of the antagonist, Ravana. The Kannada version of Ramayana opened to ₹7.25 crore net, a respectable number for a dubbed release but far below the opening-day scale that Yash’s own films like KGF: Chapter 2 have delivered in the past. The film’s Telugu performance was also muted compared with what Prabhas commands in the same territory. Ramayana’s distributor in the Telugu states noted that the opening was “decent” for a Hindi film but acknowledged a divided response from local audiences.
The takeaway is not that Yash lacks star power. It is that his star power in Ramayana is tied to a supporting role in a film whose primary market is Hindi. Prabhas, by contrast, was the leading man in a film designed from the ground up to maximise his Telugu fanbase on day one. That structural advantage proved decisive.
Why Yash’s Kannada Market Did Not Deliver a Bigger Spike
Yash is the biggest star in Kannada cinema, and his return to the screen after KGF: Chapter 2 was one of the most talked-about aspects of Ramayana. Trade observers had wondered whether his presence as Ravana could turn the Kannada version into a record-breaking opener in Karnataka. The final number, ₹7.25 crore net, was solid but not the kind of surge that would change the all-India total.
Part of the reason is the nature of the role. Ravana is a magnificent character, but he is not the hero. Yash’s fans in Karnataka turned out, but the film’s Hindi-first positioning meant the Kannada version was never going to be the primary driver of the opening day. Adipurush, by contrast, was a Telugu-first film in its opening strategy, and Prabhas was the hero. That difference in how the two films were built for their respective star markets explains a large part of the gap.
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Marketing, Timing, and the Shadow of Adipurush
Ramayana released on a Thursday, just ahead of the Diwali weekend. The timing was designed to give the film a long run, but it may have also dampened the first-day turnout. Families travelling for the festival and high premium ticket prices kept some casual viewers away on day one. Adipurush, by contrast, opened on a Friday in June 2023, with no major festival distractions in its immediate path.
Marketing also played a role. Ramayana’s promotional campaign leaned heavily on the film’s visual scale and the pedigree of director Nitesh Tiwari, but it did not generate the same kind of visceral, must-see-on-day-one urgency that Adipurush had in its opening week. The Adipurush marketing machine, whatever its later failures, succeeded in selling the film as a grand event. Ramayana sold itself as a prestige project, and prestige does not always translate into opening-day footfalls.
Then there is the Adipurush effect itself. The 2023 film’s poor reception left a section of the audience cautious about another big-screen Ramayana adaptation. Some viewers chose to wait for word of mouth before buying tickets, even though Ramayana was receiving far better reviews. The irony is sharp: Adipurush opened bigger partly because audiences had not yet been disappointed by it, while Ramayana opened smaller partly because audiences remembered how Adipurush had disappointed them.
What the Opening Day Gap Reveals About Star Power
The comparison between Ramayana and Adipurush is not a simple story of one film being better than the other. It is a story about how star power works differently in different markets. Prabhas is a Telugu superstar whose fans will fill theatres on day one in his home states, even for a film that later collapses. Ranbir Kapoor is a Hindi cinema star with a strong record, and Yash is a Kannada icon, but their combined appeal does not automatically produce the same opening-day surge in the Telugu market that Prabhas does.
Ramayana still delivered the second-biggest Hindi opening of 2026, beating the first-day numbers of Pathaan (₹57 crore) and Ranbir Kapoor’s own Animal (₹63 crore). It set a career-best opening for Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, and Nitesh Tiwari. By any normal standard, it is a strong start. But the Adipurush comparison is not a normal standard. It is a reminder that in the Indian box office, regional fandom can outweigh a bigger budget, a wider release, and better reviews on the first day.
Going by the initial numbers, the film has collected approximately Rs 4.5 crore share in the Telugu states, which is a good opening for a Hindi film. However, the response has been divided.
— A distributor speaking to Deccan Chronicle about Ramayana’s Telugu performance
The Extended Weekend and Word of Mouth
Ramayana entered its opening weekend with positive audience reactions and strong advance bookings. The film had sold tickets worth over ₹200 crore worldwide before release, including more than ₹120 crore in India. The Diwali weekend offers a chance for the film to grow through word of mouth, and early reactions have praised the visual effects and the performances of Ranbir Kapoor and Yash.
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Adipurush opened bigger, but it crashed quickly. Its lifetime worldwide gross settled at around ₹353 crore, and it was considered a box office failure given its budget. Ramayana is playing a longer game. Whether it can convert positive reviews into a strong run will depend on how it holds over the extended holiday period, but the opening-day gap with Adipurush is now a permanent part of the film’s box office story.
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