DNEG — The 8-Oscar VFX Studio Behind Ramayan's Visual Effects

DNEG — The World's Most Decorated VFX Studio

DNEG (Double Negative) has won eight Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects — more than any other active VFX house in the world. Their credits include Dune, Dune: Part Two, Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, Ex Machina, First Man, and Tenet. For Ramayan, they serve as both VFX provider and co-producer alongside Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus Studios.

600 Days of Post-Production

Ramayan's post-production phase has stretched over 600 days — one of the longest in Indian cinema history. VFX Supervisor Dan Glass, who previously supervised The Matrix Reloaded and Fantastic Beasts, has led a team of over 1,200 VFX artists working across DNEG's Mumbai, London, and Vancouver studios.

The film required building entire digital worlds from scratch — the golden city of Lanka, the Dandaka Forest, the bridge to Lanka (Ram Setu), aerial battle sequences, and divine weapons with particle-level detail.

ReDefine — DNEG's Indian Sister Studio

Much of the day-to-day VFX work has been executed by ReDefine, DNEG's India-based sister studio. This makes Ramayan one of the first global-scale VFX productions where the majority of visual effects work has been done by Indian artists on Indian soil — a milestone for the Indian VFX industry.

What VFX Sequences Were Created for Ramayana

The scope of VFX work on Ramayana extends far beyond the battle sequences that will obviously feature in the trailer. Here is a breakdown of the major VFX undertakings confirmed by production sources:

• Lanka — The City of Gold: Ravana's mythological capital has been built entirely in CGI, based on the description in the Valmiki Ramayana — a city of gold floating above the ocean, with architecture unlike anything previously seen in Indian cinema.
• Ram Setu: The bridge of rocks built by the Vanara Sena to cross the sea to Lanka. The construction sequence is expected to be one of the most visually spectacular in the film.
• Pushpak Vimana: Ravana's legendary flying chariot appears in multiple scenes and required custom physics simulations.
• Ravana's Multi-Headed Form: Yash's portrayal of Ravana includes scenes in his divine 10-headed form, requiring full digital replacement of his face and upper body.
• Divine Weapons (Astras): Brahmastra, Agneyastra, and other mythological weapons are depicted with particle-level detail and custom energy simulations.
• Ayodhya: The golden city of Ayodhya is depicted at its mythological scale — a civilisation-level recreation based on Valmiki's descriptions.

How Ramayana's VFX Compares with Previous Indian Films

Previous Indian VFX milestones include Baahubali 2 (Makuta VFX, ~₹50 crore VFX budget), RRR (V Effect), and Brahmastra (Mold 3D, Red Chillies). Ramayana's VFX investment is estimated to be 5–8x larger than any of these, reflecting both the scale of the digital environments required and the quality standards of an 8-time Oscar-winning team.

The trailer has already settled the debate for most industry observers. The visual quality visible in the 4-minute trailer — Lanka's architecture, the divine weapons, the battle sequences — has been widely called the best Indian VFX ever produced. Whether the full film maintains that level of quality throughout 3 hours will be the true test of what 600 days and 1,200 artists can achieve.