Ranbir Kapoor’s Ramayana: Australian ‘M’ Rating vs. The Divine Smokescreen

The Australian Classification Board has assigned a 34-minute preview of Ranbir Kapoor’s Ramayana an ‘M’ (Mature) rating due to moderate violence, contrasting sharply with the ‘U’ (Universal) certificate granted to its trailers in India. Critics contend the film’s unverified ₹4,000 crore budget and strategic multi-year release schedule function as a “divine smokescreen,” leveraging religious mythology to reinforce specific political narratives and nationalist fervor.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | July 17, 2026

For a production aiming to be India’s answer to global benchmarks like Avatar or The Lord of the Rings, international film classification serves as a critical barometer of content and market positioning. While the domestic buzz focuses on the film’s spiritual grandeur, the Australian Classification Board has provided the first technical evaluation of the actual footage, moving the conversation from mythology to the reality of its on-screen depiction.

The Australian Classification Board’s findings for the 34-minute clip—reportedly the same footage screened earlier at CinemaCon—are as follows:

• Footage Length: 34 minutes of certified content.
• Classification: ‘M’ (Mature).
• Primary Drivers: The rating was awarded due to “moderate violence.”
• Age Recommendation: Not recommended for persons under 15; contains themes that require a mature outlook.

This international perspective creates a notable irony when compared to the Indian landscape. In India, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has granted the theatrical trailers a ‘U’ (Universal) certificate. This is no mere clerical oversight; it is a strategic calculation to ensure this hyper-militant iconography reaches the widest possible audience, saturating the minds of a youth demographic before they develop the critical faculties to see through the cine-propaganda. Beyond these technical ratings lies a much larger debate regarding the film’s financial transparency and cultural intent.

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In modern cinema, the announcement of a massive budget is often as much a marketing tool as it is a financial reality. By claiming astronomical figures, a project instantly commands “historical scale,” creating an atmosphere of inevitability and prestige. For Ramayana, these figures have reached unprecedented levels, yet they remain shrouded in financial smoke and mirrors.

Forensic analysts have raised concerns regarding data laundering, noting that like the widely documented fraudulent figures of Dhurandhar, the ₹4,000 crore price tag attached to Nitesh Tiwari’s project exists in a realm beyond audit. These astronomical numbers are used to hoodwink stakeholders and create a sense of inevitable grandeur.

• Claimed Budget: A combined ₹4,000 crore ($500 million) for the two-part saga.
• Reality: A lack of transparent audits or financial verification to support such a massive outlay, paralleling the “Dhurandhar” pattern of unverified claims.

The project further seeks to internationalize its appeal through the involvement of Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman. However, this 4,000-crore mirage isn’t just about the box office—it’s about buying the cultural legitimacy required to mask a shifting political baseline.

The current Indian cinematic landscape increasingly sees the intersection of religious narratives and national politics. Ramayana is positioned at the heart of this trend, appearing less as a standard film and more as a narrative bridge designed to sustain specific political momentum.

Central to this analysis is the “One-Man Audience” theory, which suggests the film is crafted to satisfy the political leadership in New Delhi. The timing is meticulously engineered: the “Rama glimpse” was unveiled on April 2, 2026 (Hanuman Jayanti), creating a direct spiritual and chronological link to the January 22, 2024, inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. By centering cinema on Lord Rama, the industry effectively participates in religious demagoguery, allowing leadership to project a demigod persona.

The casting choices further reinforce this socio-political alignment:

• Ranbir Kapoor & Sai Pallavi: Casting “Old Bollywood” royalty as Rama and Sita to bridge traditional appeal with modern nationalist fervor.
• Sunny Deol: Cast as Hanuman; a former BJP MP who remains a pivotal figure in reinforcing the hyper-militant nationalist narratives.
• Yash: As Ravana, adding a “pan-India” scale to the divine smokescreen.

This alignment suggests that the film’s religious retelling is being utilized as a domestic tool for voter polarization, masking broader governance issues behind a veil of cinematic divinity.

The release strategy for Ramayana appears meticulously calibrated with the political calendar. With Part One scheduled for Diwali 2026 and Part Two arriving in 2027, the “Rama” name is guaranteed to remain in the headlines across multiple election cycles. This prolonged exposure ensures that the smokescreen remains thick, potentially facilitating Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) manipulation and voter polarization through high-octane VFX and celebrity-led devotion.

Ultimately, the core argument remains: is the “Rama glimpse” a cinematic milestone or a calculated step toward further autocratization? As highlighted in the V-Dem report on global democratic decay, India’s shift toward controlled narratives is accelerating. Critics warn that this trend represents culture poisoning, where unverified billions are spent to film a leader’s favorite deities, replacing policy-driven discourse with mythology.

The ‘M’ rating from Australia may be a technicality, but it is a smoking gun that reveals the discrepancy between the film’s global reality and its domestic political utility. As mythology increasingly replaces intellectual governance, the future of a controlled society looms—one where the spectacle of the divine is used to obscure the decay of the democratic process.