Video taking off 24x its usual first day

Nitesh Tiwari puts relationships before Ramayana's visual spectacle

The director and producer Namit Malhotra explain the emotional priorities and Hollywood-scale ambitions behind Ramayana: Part 1.

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BBC Asian Network Story of November 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 92,054 views a day, 24 times a normal first day on this channel (3,800).

Namit Malhotra & Nitesh Tiwari on Making Ramayana: Part 1

Things we can learn from the video

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3:13Tiwari explains why visual spectacle must strengthen Ramayana's emotional relationships, using Ravana's fight with Jatayu as an example.
6:03Malhotra argues that removing familiar budget constraints lets Indian storytelling pursue Hollywood-scale production.
9:12Tiwari describes consulting scholars and navigating audience expectations across the epic's many versions.
10:41Tiwari says Malhotra takes responsibility for budget pressure so he can focus on creative decisions.
15:23Malhotra discusses the international team, including composers Hans Zimmer and A. R. Rahman.

Ravana's fight with Jatayu gives Nitesh Tiwari a way to explain what Ramayana's visual effects are for. The spectacle, he tells Haroon Rashid, has to strengthen the feeling behind the scene, not replace it.

"Ramayana is all about relationships, Ramayana is all about emotions," the director says in BBC Asian Network's interview with him and producer Namit Malhotra.

The conversation drew around 63,000 views in its first 12 hours, already far beyond the channel's usual full-day audience for a regular video. It follows Rashid's interview with stars Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi, but shifts the attention from embodying treasured characters to building the enormous production around them.

Malhotra approaches that task through his visual-effects background. He argues that Indian filmmakers have historically worked with budget constraints their Hollywood counterparts did not face, and wanted this adaptation to be judged without that qualification. The ambition includes an international creative team, with Hans Zimmer and A. R. Rahman composing the music.

Tiwari describes a useful division of labour: Malhotra absorbs the financial pressure, leaving him to concentrate on the creative decisions. Those include navigating different expectations of the epic. The director points to its many versions and describes consulting scholars, a subject echoed by viewers discussing the film's characterisation of Ravana.

Asked about his choices after Dangal, Tiwari also explains why personal enthusiasm matters more to him than repeating a commercially successful formula. For all the discussion of scale, his starting point remains the story he wants to tell.

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What viewers say

Shoutout to the questions asked! Really detailed and interesting. Elevated the interview from being another normal one.
@henilshah1See it on YouTube
Top class movie..Top class vfx..Top class direction..Top class acting..
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The facts

Channel: BBC Asian Network
Subscribers: 1,200,000
Channel views, last 7 days: 809,197
Channel views, pace per day: 155,047 (on a normal day: 94,260)
Video published: November 11, 2026
Video views so far: 63,455 (less than a day online)
Video views, pace per day: 92,054

The numbers

The interview passed the channel's usual first-day view count within its opening half-day. Its comment section was also much busier than a typical new regular upload.

the video's first day

usual first day here

3,800

this video

92,054

subscribers

1,200,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

349,822,253

views per day

155,047