Ramayana First Day First Show: Audiences Call It a 'Visual Masterpiece' and 'New Benchmark'

The doors opened at 3:30 PM. The lights went down at 4:00 PM. Three hours and fifteen minutes later, audiences walked out of cinemas across India and said the same thing in a hundred different ways: this is not what we expected. This is more.

The 4 PM Shows

November 5, 2026. Premiere day. Across India, the first paid public screenings of Ramayana: Rise of a Legend began at 4 PM — and the audience that had waited years, that had watched Trailer 1 cross a billion views, that had booked Rs 104 crore worth of advance tickets, finally got to see the film.

The reactions started hitting social media before the credits finished rolling.

"Visual masterpiece." "New benchmark for Indian cinema." "Ranbir IS Ram." "Yash's Ravana is terrifying." "I cried four times." "Sai Pallavi is the soul of this film." "The Jatayu scene broke me." "I need to see this again in IMAX immediately."

The hashtag #Ramayana trended nationally within 30 minutes of the first shows ending. By 8 PM, it was the number-one trending topic on X in India, ahead of every Diwali-related hashtag.

What the Audience Is Saying

The audience response has split into a clear pattern: near-universal praise for the visual experience and performances, with some debate about the balance between spectacle and emotion.

The praise is overwhelming. Cinematographer and filmmaker Dhruwal Patel, who attended the premiere screening, gave it five stars: "A new benchmark for Indian cinema. What DNEG and Nitesh Tiwari have accomplished here is unprecedented. You cannot believe what you are watching — your brain rejects the idea that this was made in India."

Ranbir Kapoor as Ram has drawn the strongest emotional reaction. Multiple first-show viewers reported the same thing: when Ranbir speaks as Ram in the Chitrakoota scenes and the scene where he finds the dying Jatayu, something shifts. The actor who played Bunny in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Jordan in Rockstar disappears entirely. What remains is a man carrying the weight of dharma — and audiences are feeling it.

Yash as Ravana is being called the single most imposing villain in Indian cinema history. His presence is described as "aura-filled" — and the brief sequences where Ravana appears in Part 1 (the abduction, the Jatayu battle, the Lanka reveal) have been singled out as the film's most visually jaw-dropping moments. Yash does not speak much. He does not need to.

Sai Pallavi as Sita has confirmed what the critics who saw the film at the LA premiere said three weeks ago: she is the emotional heart of the film. The abduction sequence — which took Nitesh Tiwari 6.5 years to craft — is being described by audience members as "the most devastating 15 minutes I have ever experienced in a cinema."

Sunny Deol as Hanuman — who appears only in the Part 1 climax — has delivered what audiences are calling a "goosebump moment" that left theatres erupting in cheers and chants of "Jai Hanuman."

The IMAX Experience

Audiences who watched in IMAX are separately and specifically praising the format as essential. The Ayodhya establishing shots, the forest sequences during the exile, and the Pushpak Viman scenes in particular are said to benefit enormously from the IMAX frame.

One viewer in Mumbai's PVR IMAX posted: "If you are watching Ramayana on a regular screen, you are watching a different film. IMAX is not optional for this movie. It is the movie."

IMAX shows are sold out for the first three days in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata.

The Debate

Not every reaction is uncritical. A minority of viewers — and a somewhat larger share of professional critics — have raised a legitimate point: the film's scale occasionally overshadows its quieter emotional moments. The first act, which covers Ram's youth and the relationship with Sita, has been described by some as "rushed" relative to the epic scale of the later sequences.

On X and Reddit, the discourse has taken a now-familiar shape: audiences who experienced the film in IMAX with a packed audience are overwhelmingly positive, while some who watched in smaller screens or who came in with specific narrative expectations have noted the imbalance.

This is a pattern that has played out before — Baahubali 2 and RRR both drew similar split opinions on emotional depth vs spectacle. Both went on to become the highest-grossing Indian films of their respective eras.

The Theatre Experience

What social media cannot fully capture is the communal experience inside the theatre. Multiple reports from first shows across India describe audiences:

• Standing and applauding when Ranbir first appears as Ram
• Chanting "Jai Shri Ram" during the Ayodhya departure sequence
• Going completely silent during the Sita abduction — no phone screens, no whispers, nothing
• Erupting when Sunny Deol's Hanuman appears in the climax
• Remaining seated through the entire credits, waiting for the Part 2 tease

This is not a film people are watching passively. This is a film people are participating in. The cultural significance of watching Ram's story in a cinema, on Diwali eve, with a thousand strangers who share the same emotional vocabulary — that is something no streaming platform can replicate.

The Verdict So Far

It is too early for a definitive verdict. The premiere shows represent a self-selected audience — the most passionate, the most willing to pay premium prices, the most emotionally invested. The broader audience reaction from the Diwali release (November 8) will tell the fuller story.

But the first signal is unmistakable: audiences have connected with this film at a level that goes beyond entertainment. They are calling it a masterpiece. They are booking second viewings before leaving the theatre.

The box office will quantify it. The audience has already qualified it.

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is now in cinemas. IMAX, 4DX, ScreenX, and regular formats. Diwali 2026.