Ramayana producer Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus St offices face Income Tax raids weeks before Ranbir Kapoor, Yash's film release

Filmmaker Namit Malhotra's upcoming film Ramayana faces challenges as the Income Tax Department conducts searches at Prime Focus Ltd's Mumbai offices.

Filmmaker Namit Malhotra is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film, Ramayana. However, according to a report by CNBC-TV18, just a few weeks before its release, the Income Tax Department reportedly launched searches at the Mumbai offices of the filmmaker's company, Prime Focus Ltd.

IT Raids at Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus Studios

Namit Malhotra backed Ramayana to release on Diwali 2026.

The Income Tax Department's action reportedly began on October 7 and continued into Wednesday morning, with searches also being carried out at the premises of individuals associated with Prime Focus. The searches are said to be linked to certain foreign remittance transactions, although details about the specific transactions being examined have not been disclosed. The development also weighed on Prime Focus' stock, which reportedly dropped around 8% in morning trading on October 7.

Founded by Namit Malhotra in 1997, Prime Focus Studios began in Mumbai and has since grown into a global company providing visual effects, post-production, animation and technology services to the film and television industries.

Prime Focus is also closely associated with DNEG, the Oscar-winning visual-effects company that became part of the wider Prime Focus ecosystem. DNEG has won eight Oscars for Best Visual Effects, including for Inception, Interstellar, Blade Runner 2049, First Man, Tenet, Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two. Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus Ltd is now also backing Ramayana, which is being mounted as a global-scale cinematic spectacle.

About Ramayana

Mounted on a reported budget of ₹4,000 crore, the film is said to be one of the most expensive and ambitious projects in Indian cinema. Talking about the film at San Diego Comic-Con, Namit said, "Ramayana is like Avatar meets Gladiator in the world of Lord of the Rings like so if you can put that together. Lord Vishnu, who's the protector of all life, has to come as an avatar to bring balance and restore life back."

He added, "So god descends as a human and goes through his life in a human form to really understand how humans feel, ultimately to fulfil their duty. Then it's mounted in the back of this massive spectacle woven into the fabric of the screenplay. It's all about emotions. The underdog story of sacrifice, of revenge, and absolutely cutting-edge execution. It's a story that is not only going to entertain you but also going to enlighten you."

The film will release in two parts, with the first part hitting theatres on Diwali 2026.