Fans feel Ramayana English trailer outdoes OG Hindi, foreign viewers awestruck by flawless lip sync, flying elephants

The makers of Ramayana unveiled an English dub trailer of the film on Wednesday evening. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama and Yash as Ravana.

Last month, Namit Malhotra, the producer of Ramayana, announced that Sony, the global giant, had come on board as the worldwide distributor for the Nitesh Tiwari epic. On Wednesday, the first fruit of that collaboration was unveiled as an English-dubbed trailer. The trailer, aimed at a non-Indian audience, features all-English dialogue, accentuated by AI-led lip sync, which has already wowed viewers.

Ranbir Kapoor in a still from the Ramayana English trailer.

‘English dub is better than original Hindi’

The English-language trailer for Ramayana uses Brahma AI to sync the performers' lip movements with the new dub. The actors seem to have dubbed the lines themselves, but it's possible the voices were matched using AI tools. None of this deterred the viewers, though. One wrote, “English dub is better than the original Hindi too. Just compare the texture of Ravana's voice, you'll know.” Another quipped, “It is diabolical for the English dub to sound better than the Hindi trailer!”

There was special praise for the Brahma AI technology DNEG has developed for the film to make the dubs seamless. “Brahma AI 🔥 look at the Lips, perfectly sync with English dialogue. This is called technology.” Many foreign viewers, watching Ramayana for the first time, echoed the sentiment, praising the technology.

Not everyone a fan of the English dub, though

However, there were many native English speakers who felt that the film’s English dub needed a local accent instead of an Indian voice-over. “Listen, I am an English speaker. You need either US/British voice actors who better understand the vocal emotional inflexions of English. The emotions sound flattened. This is important since you are tailoring this to a global English-speaking audience. Redo the dubbing,” wrote one. Many others wrote in the comments that the Indian accent may turn off global audiences.

Airavata stuns foreign viewers

Apart from the dub, the trailer's scale and visuals wowed many first-time viewers. “This looks absolutely amazing! I'm so focused on Greek and Norse mythology lately that I overlooked how epic Indian mythology/fantasy can be,” wrote one awestruck viewer. Many others were amazed by the depiction of Airavata, the white flying elephant that served as Lord Indra's mount. The film’s trailer shows Ravana attacking Airavata during his battle with Lord Indra. “Flying elephants, I'm in,” wrote one. Another echoed, “That flying elephant was majestic.”

All about Ramayana

Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, Ramayana stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Yash as Ravana. The film also features Ravie Dubey, Sunny Deol, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Arun Govil, Lara Dutta, and Kunal Kapoor in pivotal roles. The first part of the two-part epic will release in theatres on November 6, ahead of Diwali.