No costumes, no katha

Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Nitesh Tiwari

From late last year, filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari has been working towards one goal - of taking the Ranbir Kapoor-led Ramayana on floors in March. A fortnight into the month, the ambitious retelling of the epic has yet to roll. A bit of digging revealed that the shoot has apparently been pushed by a month. Reason? We hear the costume and art departments need some time to perfect the outfits and sets respectively.

After a look test was done on the primary cast in February, the makers felt they needed to revisit the costumes. A source says, "The costumes were authentic, but felt lacking in terms of scale and grandeur. Additional costume designers, who have worked on mythological offerings, were hired last week. The outfits should be locked by March 25."

Given the epic's significance in Indian culture, Ramayana - which also stars Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Raavan - is easily the most anticipated project. After Adipurush (2023) was met with criticism, Tiwari decided that he wouldn't kick off the shoot until he is happy with every aspect. "It has to be loyal to the spirit of the epic. The set too will have some minor changes, and the film will roll sometime between April 12 and 15."