The countdown to one of the biggest visual spectacles in Indian cinema, Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, has begun. Following its worldwide premiere in Los Angeles, the cast and crew have kick-started the film’s promotions in India. During a conversation with host Suma, Ranbir Kapoor, Ravi Dubey, Yash, Rakul Preet Singh and Nitesh Tiwari opened up about the technical complexities and extensive efforts that went into creating the much-talked-about Pushpak Vimaan in Ramayana.Nitesh Tiwari shed light on why Ramayana took so long to materialise. The director explained that the biggest challenge was arriving at a narrative structure that remained faithful to Valmiki’s Ramayana while incorporating elements from other versions of the epic. He said, “The maximum time went into arriving on a structure, which we were convinced does justice to the base text, which is Valmiki’s Ramayana but also incorporates lot of beautiful stories, which are present in other versions of Ramayana. We have more than 300 Ramayanas, and a lot of small small beautiful stories which also float around, and every version of Ramayana is embraced by the people of the country. Now, they all exist in absolute harmony. So many versions! Somewhere, certain characters are portrayed in a certain way but we are looking at an optimum version, which in our opinion, does justice to the great story which we all have loved growing up, and allows us to create a cinematic spectacle, which we can very proudly present to the whole world. So, it was a very daunting, challenging task to be able to arrive at something, which is great on paper, and after that the real struggle of how do we really achieve it in the form that we want it to be on screen; that required a lot of intensive preparation, which required self-learning also, lot of prep work was needed for a lot of time because developing the characters, and assets, takes lot of time.”One action sequence took 6.5 years to completeThe director also offered a glimpse into the enormous effort that went into perfecting the film’s visual effects. Citing the much-discussed Ravana-Jatayu battle as an example, Nitesh revealed that the sequence alone took six and a half years to complete. He said, “Great VFX takes lot of time. Just to give you a very basic idea, so that I can sum up in a very precise manner as to how much effort has gone into it. I have read that Ravana and Jatayu fight is looking absolutely stunning, and Pushpak Vimaan looks out of this world. You know how much time it took us to finish the Ravana-Jatayu fight? From the time I briefed the previous artists to the time we have finished the work on it, it’s 6 and a half years.”Rakul Preet Singh was surprised by the revelation and exclaimed, “wow!” Ranbir Kapoor then reiterated the scale of the work, assuring everyone that it was just one action sequence alone that took these many years.Nitesh continued, “One action sequence, and I can go on and on about it for an hour, just to tell you how much effort went into making it from scratch…and thousands of people have worked on it.”Ranbir Kapoor reacts to people calling VFX ‘AI’Echoing the director’s sentiments, Ranbir Kapoor spoke about the hard work that goes into creating large-scale visual effects and expressed his disappointment over people casually dismissing such work as AI-generated. “You do feel bad when some times, and it happens so much more now, that when you release something, and the first thing that someone says is, ‘Oh, it’s AI, this and that’ but actually there are thousands of people sitting behind it day in and day out and they are all tirelessly working for hours, just to get one frame right,” said Ranbir.Story continues below this adThe actor also addressed the challenge of bringing the Pushpak Vimaan to life, especially since the mythical aircraft already has a well-established place in the Ramayana. He said, “There is science behind it. It’s not just something that you take out of your imagination. There is correct science behind why that Pushpak Vimaan flies, and that’s used in the movie.”Also Read: AR Rahman on composing for Ramayana, working with Hans Zimmer and why he is a nervous performerThe story behind Pushpak VimaanRevealing more fascinating details about the creative process, Nitesh Tiwari shared that the team spent nearly two years finalising the design of Pushpak Vimaan. However, the process did not end there, as changes to the aircraft’s final structure forced the team to rework the Ravana-Jatayu battle.Nitesh said, “It took us close to 2 years to arrive at the structure of Pushpak Vimaan but then a lot of things changed. That’s why it took us such a long time to create the Ravana and Jatayu fight because when we were working on the previous version, the design of Pushpak Vimaan we had assumed would be something like this, and the fight was choreographed in that manner. And, once we loved the final design of the Pushpak Vimaan, which was pretty different than what we had already created, we had to do a lot of iterations to fit this design into that choreography. ‘Now, Jatayu can’t come from here? So, now what do we do because here a dome-like structure is created.’ So, you have to always keep on reworking with the best output, which you are getting in terms of design also. We had created close to 40-50 designs of Pushpak Vimaan before finalising this one because we did not want something which looks like, ‘How can this fly?’ We wanted some kind of science to go into it because we all believe that there was science behind everything that happened around that time. You look at Pushpak Vimaan, it looks like, ‘Okay, this can fly,’ and I can talk about it in much detail as to what, in our opinion, makes it fly and makes it move, and what exactly happens in Pushpak Vimaan. At least, in our heads, we know what happens there.”Story continues below this adYash reveals why the team decided to take the risk with RamayanaYash, who is also one of the film’s producers, joined the conversation and opened up about the team’s vision behind taking on such an ambitious project. Yash said, “Our question was whether to take the risk, knowing that whatever we did, people would find fault with it or say, ‘This is not right.’ We had two choices: either stay away from it and do something safe and commercially viable, allowing us to happily continue doing what we do, or take the risk with the right intentions and say, ‘We will try our best. Keep guiding us, and we will take all the feedback.’ Ultimately, our intention was to bring this story to the whole world, allowing people to enjoy it and understand our culture. That was our vision.”About RamayanaRamayana: Rise of a Legend is the first instalment of a two-part adaptation of the Indian epic, directed by Nitesh Tiwari. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Sai Pallavi plays Sita, Yash plays Ravana, Sunny Deol plays Hanuman and Ravi Dubey plays Lakshmana. The film is co-produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in collaboration with DNEG and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations. The music of the movie is by Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman.The film is scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release on November 5, coinciding with Diwali. Part 2, which was initially planned for Diwali 2027, has been pushed to Diwali 2028.