Ramayana's trilingual live-action trilogy to be helmed by Dangal director Nitesh Tiwari, Ravi Udyawar

Back in 2017, it was reported that Ramayana will get a live-action feature film, bankrolled by Madhu Mantena, Allu Aravind and Namit Malhotra. Now, Mumbai Mirror reports that the producers have nabbed _Dangal_ director Nitesh Tiwari and _Mom_ director Ravi Udyawar to helm the ambitious project from Sridhar Raghavan’s screenplay. [caption id=“attachment_6953711” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Nitesh Tiwari (loeft) and Ravi Udya. Images from Twitter[/caption] Confirming the news, Ravi said that their film will be explored quite differently from the conventional narrative of the epic. “I heard these stories from my grandmother and mother and passed them on to my children. Everybody knows the story of Ram, Sita, and Raavan, it’s the storytelling that will make our trilogy memorable. I’m putting everything I have learnt into it to make it fun and engaging while staying true to the original.” The film, to be made at an astronomical budget of Rs 500 crore, will be a three-part series and will be shot in 3D. Moreover, it will be a trilingual project, and will be released in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. The film will also feature an ensemble with actors from various industries such as Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood as well as the Gujarati and Punjabi film industries in a bid to appeal to the pan-Indian and global audience. Nitesh, on the other hand, says that while the film will focus on Ram and his values, it will also lay equal emphasis on the other characters. The Ramayana has never been depicted on the silver screen though it has seen a couple of versions on the small screen. The most notable one being back in 1987-88, when Ramanand Sagar made Ramayan with Arun Govil and Deepika Chikhalia as Ram and Sita respectively, that aired on Doordarshan. The most recent adaptation was aired in 2008, starring Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee as Ram and Sita respectively. It was produced by Sagar Arts and was aired on NDTV Imagine.