From Ramanand Sagar To Ranbir Kapoor, Where To Watch Every Ramayana Adaptation

The Ramayana has been filmed and animated across generations of Indian screens, and no decade has managed to leave it alone. Ranbir Kapoor’s Ramayana: Part One has just opened in cinemas with a reported budget of ₹835 crore, which makes this a moment to settle a practical question: where do you watch each version at home?

The epic has been adapted too many times for one list to hold, so this guide covers twelve major Ramayana adaptations in order of release, from Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 television landmark to the new film.

Directed by C.S. Rao and Chittajalu Pullayya, Lava Kusa is a Telugu adaptation that explores the later chapters of the Ramayana, focusing on the lives of Ram and Sita's twin sons, Lava and Kusa. N.T. Rama Rao plays Lord Ram, while Anjali Devi portrays Sita. Kanta Rao appears as Lakshmana, with Kaikala Satyanarayana playing Bharata.

Ramanand Sagar wrote, produced and directed the series that Doordarshan broadcast on Sunday mornings between 1987 and 1988, and Sunday plans across India were changed forever. Arun Govil played Ram, Deepika Chikhalia played Sita, and Sunil Lahri played Lakshman, with Dara Singh as Hanuman and Arvind Trivedi as Ravana. Every later screen, Ram has been measured against Govil's portrayal; such was the influence of the show.

This beautiful Indo-Japanese animated feature was directed by Yugo Sako, Koichi Sasaki and Ram Mohan, with music by Vanraj Bhatia. The Hindi version is the one most young Indian audiences grew up with: Arun Govil voices Ram, Namrata Sawhney voices Sita, Amrish Puri gives Ravana a menace, and Shatrughan Sinha narrates. The original English version features Nikhil Kapoor, Rael Padamsee and Uday Mathan.

Gunasekhar directed this Telugu film, produced by M. S. Reddy, with an all-child cast that reportedly runs past 3,000 young actors. A young N. T. Rama Rao Jr., now known as Jr NTR, played Ram, and Smitha Madhav played Sita. The film won the National Film Award for Best Children’s Film, and its young Ram grew up to play Komaram Bheem in RRR.

Nina Paley wrote, directed and animated this controversial feminist take on the Ramayana almost single-handedly over about five years, setting Sita’s story to the 1920s jazz recordings of Annette Hanshaw. Reena Shah gives Sita her speaking voice, while Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally and Manish Acharya narrate as a trio of silhouetted commentators who argue over the details of the epic. Paley also weaves her own divorce into the film.

Anand Sagar, son of Ramanand Sagar, directed this 300-episode retelling for the family’s production house, Sagar Arts, between January 2008 and June 2009. Gurmeet Choudhary played Ram and Debina Bonnerjee played Sita, with Ankit Arora as Lakshman, Vikram Sharma as Hanuman and Akhilendra Mishra as Ravana.

Mani Ratnam's Raavan and its Tamil counterpart, Raavanan, offer a contemporary reinterpretation of the Ramayana, shifting the narrative's focus towards the moral complexities of its central characters. Rather than recreating the epic in its original setting, Ratnam transplants its central conflict into a contemporary landscape, exploring the relationship between a police officer, his abducted wife and a tribal outlaw. The Hindi version stars Abhishek Bachchan as Beera, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Ragini and Vikram as Dev. The Tamil version features Vikram as Veeraiya, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Ragini and Prithviraj Sukumaran as Dev.

Another animated gem, Ramayana: The Epic (2010) offers a computer-animated interpretation of Valmiki's timeless narrative. Directed by Chetan Desai and produced by Ketan Mehta, Deepa Sahi and Niraj Bhukanwala, the film was presented as one of India's early large-scale 3D animated mythological features. What makes the film particularly interesting is its voice cast. Manoj Bajpayee voices Rama, Juhi Chawla lends her voice to Sita, Ashutosh Rana plays Ravana and Mukesh Rishi voices Hanuman.

Bapu directed this Telugu devotional drama in what became his last film, working from a screenplay co-written with Mullapudi Venkata Ramana. Nandamuri Balakrishna played Ram and Nayanthara played Sita, with Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Valmiki and Srikanth as Lakshman. The story opens after the war in Lanka and follows Sita’s exile and her twin sons, a chapter that most adaptations hurry past. Ilaiyaraaja’s score won a Nandi Award.

Told from Sita’s point of view, this daily television serial ran for 304 episodes between November 2015 and November 2016. Ashish Sharma played Ram, Madirakshi Mundle played Sita and Karthik Jayaram played Ravana. Nikhil Sinha and Dharmesh Shah directed, and Sinha produced the series under the Triangle Film Company banner.

Om Raut directed this large-scale retelling that flopped at the cinemas, with Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as Janaki and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, alongside Sunny Singh and Devdatta Nage. T-Series backed the production, which was made in Hindi and Telugu and dubbed into three further languages.

Nitesh Tiwari directs the two-part epic from a screenplay he wrote with Shridhar Raghavan, and Namit Malhotra produces it through Prime Focus Studios, with DNEG handling the visual effects. Ranbir Kapoor plays Ram, Sai Pallavi plays Sita, Yash plays Ravana, Sunny Deol plays Hanuman and Ravie Dubey plays Lakshman. The supporting cast includes Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi, Kajal Aggarwal as Mandodari, Rakul Preet Singh as Shurpanakha and Arun Govil as King Dasharatha. The score marks Hans Zimmer’s first Indian film, and he shares composing duties with A. R. Rahman.