Ramayana: Part One, Nitesh Tiwari’s screen version of the Hindu epic, will open in China, Japan, South Korea and Russia in the first three months of 2027, the Indian trade analyst Taran Adarsh said in a post on X on Sunday 15 November that he marked as exclusive. The film, he added, is already before China’s censors. Neither the producer, Prime Focus Studios, nor Sony Pictures, its distributor outside India, had confirmed the plan by Sunday afternoon.
If it holds, the plan would take one of India’s biggest releases of the year into markets where Indian cinema has made real money only in bursts. China turned Tiwari’s Dangal into the highest-grossing Indian film ever in 2017; Japan gave RRR an Indian record that still stands. The report leaves out everything a buyer or exhibitor would need to act on: release dates, local distributors and which version of a film that runs 3 hours 15 minutes in India would travel.
Key facts
- Plan: Ramayana: Part One (released internationally as Ramayana: Rise of a Legend) reportedly opens in China, Japan, South Korea and Russia between January and March 2027
- China: the film is already with the censors for clearance, according to the same report
- Distribution: Prime Focus Studios names Sony Pictures as the global distributor outside India; no partner or date has been named for any of the four markets
- Box office so far: an estimated ₹1,228 crore ($130.3m) worldwide after 10 days, ₹408.50 crore ($43.3m) of it from outside India (Sacnilk)
What has been reported
Adarsh’s post gave the four territories, the first-quarter window and the Chinese submission, and nothing more. Bollywood Hungama, Sacnilk and ABP Live repeated it within hours, none with a company source. The Prime Focus Studios newsroom, checked on Sunday, carries no such announcement; its most recent Ramayana item is the worldwide release page of 5 November. The studio’s earlier release on the Sony deal names Sony Pictures as the film’s global distributor outside India and Dharma Productions as its partner in the Hindi-speaking north of India.
China is the market that matters most and the hardest to schedule. A foreign film needs regulatory approval and a slot on a release calendar that Hollywood dominates, and producers of Indian films have typically kept only about 20% of their Chinese box office, Mint reported in 2024, citing trade experts. The idea of a mainland release is not new. In October, Chinese film bloggers on Weibo, one of them citing Indian media, wrote that Sony would bring the film to mainland cinemas and hoped for a November opening. No mainland date followed, and neither company has said anything on the subject.
,_in_Panaji,_Goa_on_November_23,_2017.jpg){kind=link}
How Indian films have fared in these markets
Dangal took about ₹1,200 crore in China in 2017, according to Mint, the bulk of the $303.7m worldwide total that Deadline still lists as the Indian record. The flow of Indian titles into China dried up around 2020 as relations between the two countries soured. Maharaja, a Tamil thriller, reopened the market in late November 2024 as the first Indian film released there after the October 2024 accord between the two countries, and reached ₹91.55 crore, the highest for an Indian film in China since 2018, according to a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in India.
Japan has rewarded patience. RRR opened there through the distributor Twin on 21 October 2022 and built slowly into the Indian record, ¥2.42bn on a chart compiled by Sacnilk. Russia and South Korea are less proven. Sacnilk points to Russia’s long history with Indian cinema and calls South Korea a relatively less-explored theatrical market.
Ramayana would arrive with a substantial overseas base already in place. Of its estimated ₹1,228 crore worldwide gross after its 10th day, Saturday 14 November, ₹685.60 crore ($72.8m) is net box office in India and ₹408.50 crore, about a third of the total, is gross from other markets, by Sacnilk’s count; the tracker describes its overseas figures as rough estimates. Our earlier reports cover the film’s record second Friday in India, its No. 1 opening in the UK and Ireland and its place in the BRICS strand of the International Film Festival of India in Goa. Conversions use the European Central Bank reference rates for 13 November (₹94.24 to the dollar).
Our reading
A censor submission is the first step that can be checked, and it decides the rest. Until China’s regulator approves the film and a local distributor puts a date on the calendar, the four-market plan remains an intention. Japan looks the likelier early test: Indian spectacle has a proven audience there, and a long, word-of-mouth run of the kind RRR enjoyed suits a film that is still holding well at home. The next evidence will be a dated Chinese release or a named Japanese distributor. Either would also show exhibitors which cut is travelling, a practical question for a film of more than three hours.
Sources
- Taran Adarsh on X, 15 November 2026 (as embedded by ABP Live)
- Sacnilk, Ramayana eyes early 2027 release in China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, 15 November 2026
- Sacnilk, Ramayana box office collection day 10 (Saturday 14 November 2026)
- Bollywood Hungama, Ramayana to release in China, Russia, Japan and South Korea in Q1 2027, 15 November 2026
- Prime Focus Studios, Sony Pictures joins Ramayana's global journey
- Deadline, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend passes $100m at the global box office, 12 November 2026
- Sina (Weibo film blogger 魏小圣是小天才), Sony to import Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, 16 October 2026
- Sina (Weibo film blogger 电影纠缠), Ramayana: Rise of a Legend expected in mainland China, 17 October 2026
- Hindustan Times, Maharaja is the highest-grossing Indian film in China since 2018, 5 January 2025
- Mint, China market reopens for Indian films, November 2024
- Variety, RRR roars at Japan box office, 2023
- Gulf News, Dhurandhar heads to Japan (Sacnilk Japan chart for Indian films), 2026
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 13 November 2026