When a film opens in 80 countries and clocks INR 50.8 crore in day-one advance bookings in India alone, marketers stop treating it as entertainment. They treat it as a media channel. Ramayana has become exactly that, and the Diwali calendar has made it the season’s most crowded brand stage.
ETBrandEquity reported that the epic’s pre-release numbers shattered domestic records: day-one advance bookings crossed INR 50.8 crore in India, while overseas gross climbed to USD 3.5 million across all available dates. A worldwide release, a takeover at San Diego Comic-Con and creator collaborations with names like MrBeast expanded the conversation well beyond the South Asian diaspora.
From ticket sales to brand tie-ins
Instead of a standard festive ad, several brands built their campaigns into the film’s world:
- Mangalmai launched special Diwali edition bottles with Ramayana stickers and ran social media contests offering movie merchandise and special-edition Amar Chitra Katha comic books.
- Tribe Amrapali, the official jewellery partner, designed more than 4,500 custom pieces for production and used the film’s halo to launch wearable consumer lines for the festive shopping surge.
- Teabox released three character-inspired Ayurvedic teas modelled on Rama, Sita and Hanuman, with a campaign film translating narrative virtues into flavour profiles.
- Imax sent premium hampers to creators and critics: a leather case, an ancient-style scroll, a golden compass, Ramayana comic books, bookmarks and VIP passes, turning a media invite into an unboxing moment.
Why cinema wins over the skip button
Sachiin Guptaa, country head – enterprise business at UFO Cine Media Network, said, “Brands today want to be part of conversations that go beyond traditional advertising. A film like Ramayana brings together scale, emotion and a strong cultural connect across generations.”
He added that cinema offers a highly engaged, captive audience whose attention is fixed on the big screen. For marketers, that is the difference between building recall and funding another ad that gets skipped.
The long-term prize is a Ramayana Universe
Producer Namit Malhotra has outlined plans for a full-scale Ramayana Universe, with theme-park integrations, video games and merchandise on the horizon. For brands, that converts one opening weekend into a longer licensing and co-creation runway.
Rajesh Radhakrishnan, co-founder and CMO of Vritti iMedia and Mindwave Media, cautioned that the film should remain the focus. “When the association is subtle, contextually relevant and not overdone, brands can benefit from the cultural significance of the content without overshadowing it.”
The takeaway from the opening is simple: the winners are not the brands buying a few peak-festive spots, but those willing to join the cinematic story for the long haul.
Source: ETBrandEquity.com
