India's most expensive film cost ₹835 crore, has VFX by an Oscar winner; not Kalki 2898 AD, RRR, Brahmastra, Adipurush

India's most expensive film has a budget of $100 million, almost as much as several Hollywood studio features.

Gone are the days when ₹50 crore was considered a big budget for an Indian film. Today, films meant for streaming are made for twice as much. The biggest Indian films are slowly rivalling Hollywood productions with their budgets and scale. Pretty soon, the mantle of the most expensive Indian film is set to change, as production wraps up on the country's first-ever $100 million production, a magnum opus years in the making.

Yash with Hollywood stunt director Guy Norris on the sets of India's most expensive film.

Most expensive Indian film

Nitesh Tiwari's adaptation of Ramayan is set to break the record of the most expensive Indian film. The film will be released in two parts. Ramayana Part 1 recently wrapped filming and is now heading into post-production. According to a Bollywood Hungama report from 2024, the film has a massive budget of $100 million, the highest ever in Indian cinema history. This approximately ₹835 crore budget for Ramayana 1 exceeds the budgets of Kalki 2898 AD ( ₹600 crore), RRR and Adipurush (both ₹550 crore). The VFX-heavy Brahmastra Part One is the most expensive Bollywood film made to date, with a reported budget of ₹375 crore.

Ramayana Part 1 is being produced by Namit Malhotra, who owns Prime Focus, the world's largest independent integrated media services company. Namit is also the CEO of its British-Indian subsidiary DNEG, which specialises in visual effects. DNEG is creating the VFX for Ramayana, and the company comes with a great pedigree, having won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects eight times.

All about Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana

Ramayana is a two-part film based on Valmiki's epic of the same name. The Nitesh Tiwari film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, along with Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana. The film's star-studded support cast includes Vivek Oberoi, Rakul Preet Singh, Lara Dutta, Kajal Aggarwal, Ravi Dubey, Kunal Kapoor, Arun Govil, Sheeba Chadha, and Indira Krishnan. The film's first glimpse will be released on July 3. It is slated to be released on Diwali 2026.