Lengthy earlier than Alpha, Bollywood had been retelling the Ramayana in fashionable settings, generally subtly and generally not so subtly.
IMAGE: Alia Bhatt in Alpha.
Key Factors
- With Alia Bhatt’s Alpha set to supply a contemporary spin on the Ramayana, Bollywood’s lengthy historical past of borrowing from the epic comes into focus.
- From Tezaab and Khal Nayak to Gadar: Ek Prem Katha and Most important Hoon Na, a number of mainstream hits have reimagined the Valmiki epic in modern settings.
- Some movies have used these parallels subtly, whereas others like Raavan and Singham Once more have worn their Ramayana inspirations proudly on their sleeves.
There may be one amusing commentary many on social media have made ever for the reason that trailer of Alpha got here out. They’re claiming that 2026 is the particular yr when a real-life Bollywood couple are enjoying arguably probably the most revered couple in Indian mythology.
Albeit in several movies.
Albeit one among them in a extra symbolic method than in a direct adaptation.
Ranbir Kapoor is enjoying Lord Ram in Nitesh Tiwari’s bold mythological two-parter Ramayana, the primary instalment of which arrives throughout Diwali 2026. Within the movie, Sai Pallavi performs Sita.
His real-life associate Alia Bhatt is enjoying a personality named Sita within the upcoming spy thriller Alpha (releasing on July 3), set within the fashionable period.
Alia’s Sita has little to do with the Ramayana character, besides that she is known as so, as revealed within the trailer, as a result of her mom’s title is Janki, one other title for Goddess Sita, and that she finds herself within the clutches of the villain till she breaks free and, hopefully, burns down his Lanka.
Additionally, if Bobby Deol is the ‘Raavan’ of Alpha, his older brother Sunny Deol is enjoying Lord Hanuman in Tiwari’s Ramayana.
Which makes us ponder whether Hrithik Roshan, who has a cameo in Alpha, will find yourself being the Hanuman equal there.
Ramayana’s Enduring Affect on Hindi Cinema
India’s nice epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, have impressed quite a few variations in Indian cinema, each direct (Adipurush is one adaptation everybody needs to overlook) and oblique.
With regards to oblique variations, many are set in modern instances however borrow parallels, metaphors and characterisations from these epics, with some doing so remarkably nicely.
Sreeju Sudhakaran picks 10 widespread movies that evoke the Ramayana, very similar to Alpha, inside their modern-day narratives, generally subtly and generally, not.
Raavan (1984)
The place To Watch: YouTube
IMAGE: Smita Patil in Raavan.
Johnny Bakshi’s Raavan revolves round a lady, performed by Smita Patil, who’s forcibly taken away from her village by a merciless small-time circus proprietor, solely to be rescued by a hardened prison and performer who calls himself Raavan (Gulshan Arora).
Experiencing freedom below him and maybe affected by a contact of the Stockholm Syndrome, the lady tries to reform this Raavan into a greater man, although his cruelty and jealousy make that troublesome.
The movie, which additionally stars Om Puri as a benevolent station grasp, ends on a tragic be aware towards the backdrop of a burning Ravana effigy throughout a Ram Navami celebration.
Tezaab (1988)
The place To Watch: Prime Video and MX Participant
IMAGE: Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor and Kiran Kumar in Tezaab.
N Chandra’s traditional potboiler, the movie that turned Madhuri Dixit right into a nationwide sensation with Ek Do Teen, borrows maybe the commonest thread from the Ramayana on this checklist: the kidnapping of the heroine and the villain’s eventual annihilation when the hero arrives to rescue her together with his vaanar sena.
Right here, Madhuri is the captive heroine Mohini, her ‘Ram’ is Munna, her former boyfriend-turned-criminal, performed by Anil Kapoor, and the Ravana is Lotiya (Kiran Kumar), a vengeful gangster who guidelines from the docks.
Chunky Pandey’s Baban is the loyal and mischievous ‘Hanuman’ of the story, although in contrast to the immortal deity, he sadly is not a Chiranjeevi right here.
Khal Nayak (1993)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, Z5, MX Participant
IMAGE: Jackie Shroff and Sanjay Dutt in Khal Nayak.
From one Madhuri Dixit traditional potboiler to a different.
This time it’s Subhash Ghai reimagining the Ramayana. The ‘Ravana’ is Ballu (Sanjay Dutt), a rowdy prison who’s extra of an anti-hero, with some area for a predictable ethical redemption, slightly than an outright villain.
The heroine, performed by Madhuri, willingly enters the antagonist’s world as a part of an undercover police operation and she or he does to make sure the repute of her ‘Ram’ is repaired.
Her ‘Ram’, in the meantime, is one other police officer, performed by Jackie Shroff, who should make sure that his ‘Sita’ stays unhurt, whereas Ballu slowly falls for her and turns into a greater man than he was once.
Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, JioHotstar, Z5
IMAGE: Salman Khan and Sonali Bendre in Hum Saath-Saath Hain.
Sooraj Barjatya’s household blockbuster might not have a Ravana, nevertheless it definitely has its personal variations of Ram, Bharat, Sita, Lakshman, Dashrath, Kaikeyi and Manthara.
Make that Mantharas.
Mohnish Bahl performs the Ram equal, an obedient and well-mannered son who leaves his rich house together with his pregnant spouse (Tabu) after his stepmother (Reema Lagoo), manipulated by her vampish mates, needs her personal son (Salman Khan) to inherit the household wealth.
In fact, her reticent son is extra dedicated to his elder brother than to any property greed.
Fortunately, like several Sooraj Barjatya movie, the heroes shouldn’t have to attend 14 years and battle a conflict to have their completely satisfied household reunion.
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, Z5
IMAGE: Utkarsh Sharma, Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel in Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.
Anil Sharma’s blockbuster offers the Ramayana a geopolitical twist.
Lanka turns into newly-partitioned Pakistan, Ravana is the heroine Sakina’s father (Amrish Puri), who retains his personal daughter captive, and Tara Singh (Sunny Deol), the Ram of this story, would not want an entire vaanar sena to deliver down ‘Lanka’.
A hand pump and a dhai-kilo ka haath are sufficient to deliver his Sita again to his ‘Ayodhya’, that’s India.
The 2023 sequel goes for a tough encore however this time, Tara has to enter his ‘Lanka’ to rescue his son.
Lajja (2001)
The place To Watch: Prime Video, JioHotstar, Eros Now, MX Participant
IMAGE: Samir Soni and Madhuri Dixit in Lajja.
Rajkumar Santoshi’s gripping and under-rated drama names its 4 protagonists after numerous names related to Sita: Vaidehi (Manisha Koirala), Janki (Madhuri Dixit), Maithili (Mahima Chaudhury) and Ramdulari (Rekha).
The concept is to indicate that regardless of worshipping ladies as goddesses, patriarchy continues to oppress them even in in the present day’s instances.
Janki’s story particularly mirrors the Ramayana the strongest, since she is an actress performing as Sita in a stage manufacturing, the place actual life begins to mimic mythology when her advantage is questioned by her suspicious boyfriend.
Not like her mythological counterpart, nonetheless, this modern-day Sita refuses to let Mom Earth swallow her and fights again, albeit with tragic penalties.
Truthfully, do not suppose such an episode would even go the censors in the present day.
Most important Hoon Na (2004)
The place To Watch: Netflix
IMAGE: Shah Rukh Khan and Sushmita Sen in Most important Hoon Na.
In Farah Khan’s masala entertainer, each the hero and the villain carry names related to Lord Ram.
Main Ram (Shah Rukh Khan) believes in peace even together with his enemies and is aided by his estranged stepbrother Lakshman aka Fortunate (Zayed Khan) in the long run.
Raghavan (Sunil Shetty), in the meantime, corrupts his personal sense of righteousness via vengeance, inadvertently turning into the Ravana of his story.
His loyal lieutenant, performed by Murali Sharma, finally turns into his Vibhishana when he recognises the ethical decay of his chief and betrays him.
Ra.One (2011)
The place To Watch: Eros Now
IMAGE: Arjun Rampal in Ra.One.
One other Shah Rukh Khan movie loosely impressed by the Ramayana, a lot in order that it names its shape-shifting AI antagonist, Ra.One.
To drive laborious the mythological metaphoring, there may be additionally a scene the place the villain, in his human type, is juxtaposed towards a burning effigy of Ravana and within the climax battle, even splits himself into 10 varieties.
However as a substitute of abducting the heroine Sonia (Kareena Kapoor Khan), the synthetic intelligence-generated online game villain is obsessive about killing her son, although he does hypnotise and abduct Sonia throughout one thrilling sequence.
Raavan (2010)
The place To Watch: Prime Video
IMAGE: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan in Raavan.
Mani Ratnam’s bilingual movie is without doubt one of the most direct modern-day reinterpretations of the Ramayana, besides that each main character exists in shades of gray and even the humiliation of Shurpanakha is introduced in a extra tragic context.
Abhishek Bachchan’s Beera, the ‘Raavan’, is a Naxalite chief who abducts Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), police officer Dev (Chiyaan Vikram)’s spouse.
But, neither is Beera an outright villain, one thing Ragini ultimately realises, nor does Dev’s actions resemble these of his mythological counterpart.
Vikram displayed outstanding versatility by enjoying Dev in Hindi and Beera in Tamil, together with his efficiency because the latter receiving larger acclaim than Bachchan’s.
Singham Once more (2024)
The place To Watch: Prime Video
IMAGE: Ajay Devgn in Singham Once more.
Rohit Shetty’s multi-starrer attracts closely from the Ramayana, even paying direct homage to it.
Kareena Kapoor Khan’s character promotes the epic to the youthful era, whereas Ajay Devgn’s Bajirao Singham visits places related to Lord Ram’s journey.
Naturally, he turns into Ram in his personal life when he should rescue his spouse from the clutches of the villain, performed by Arjun Kapoor, with a lot of the motion set in Sri Lanka.
He’s aided on this battle by the saga’s personal variations of Lakshman, Hanuman, Jatayu and Garuda, portrayed by Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Tiger Shroff and Akshay Kumar.
It’s simply that in attempting to tie itself so carefully to the Ramayana, Singham Once more did not have something new to say of its personal.
Pictures curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
