--- title: 'Ranbir Kapoor Says Ramayana’s VFX Backlash Mistakes Years of Work for AI' type: 'blog post' section: 'The Argument' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'Ranbir Kapoor, Nitesh Tiwari and Namit Malhotra have answered criticism of the Ramayana trailer’s CGI, asking viewers to wait for the finished film and the IMAX frame it was made for.' author: 'CinePixo' published: '2026-08-22' updated: '2026-08-22' about_people: - 'Namit Malhotra' - 'Ranbir Kapoor' - 'Nitesh Tiwari' tags: - 'Ramayana trailer VFX criticism' - 'Ranbir Kapoor AI VFX comments' - 'Nitesh Tiwari Ramayana CGI' - 'Namit Malhotra DNEG Ramayana' - 'Ramayana IMAX release 2026' - 'Yash Ravana Ranbir Kapoor Ram' sources: - 'https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/7-roles-chetan-hansraj-ranbir-kapoor-ramayana-ravana-grandfather-brothers-demon-10832988/' - 'https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/celebrities/ramayana-ranbir-kapoor-nitesh-tiwari-and-namit-malhotra-respond-to-vfx-criticism-people-think-someone-just-used-ai/ar-AA29UAjP' - 'https://in.mashable.com/entertainment/112789/ranbir-kapoor-reacts-to-vfx-criticism-over-ramayana-trailer-video-tricky-to-impress-audience' - 'https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/ranbir-kapoor-takes-dig-at-cgi-critics-bashing-ramayana-trailer-defends-vfx-work' - 'https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ramayana-trailer-ranbir-kapoor-yash-1236819671/' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/ranbir-kapoor-says-ramayanas-vfx-backlash-mistakes-years-of-work-for-ai' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Ranbir Kapoor Says Ramayana’s VFX Backlash Mistakes Years of Work for AI *Ranbir Kapoor, Nitesh Tiwari and Namit Malhotra have answered criticism of the Ramayana trailer’s CGI, asking viewers to wait for the finished film and the IMAX frame it was made for.* By CinePixo, 2026-08-22 · The Argument Ranbir Kapoor, Nitesh Tiwari and Namit Malhotra have answered the VFX criticism around the Ramayana trailer, after online viewers picked at the clip’s CGI and accused parts of it of looking too dependent on artificial intelligence. As Mashable India reported, the actor, director and producer spoke to Collider about the reaction and asked audiences to hold judgment until the two-part film is seen on the big screen. Kapoor’s sharpest line was aimed at how casually people now read any digital image as AI: “People think someone has just used AI and released something.” ## The Complaint Hit Before The Film Was Finished The trailer for Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana arrived as the film’s biggest public look so far, and the response quickly moved from casting and scale to the images themselves. Mashable India reported that viewers criticised the trailer for what they saw as heavy use of AI, VFX and CGI. This is the price of making a myth at blockbuster size in 2026. Every sky, army, palace and weapon is treated like evidence. Some of that scrutiny is fair. If a film asks us to believe in gods, demons and war across worlds, the images have to carry weight. A soft creature effect or plastic battlefield can break the spell in seconds. Kapoor’s point, as reported by Mashable India and Outlook India, is that a phone screen is a bad courtroom for a film built for IMAX. He said judging the VFX on a small screen does not capture the detail the team has been trying to put into the film. That does not make criticism invalid. It does mean the trailer is only one version of the work, compressed, streamed and watched in whatever conditions the internet gives it. ![Akhil RD with Ranbir Kapoor on November 14th, 2013, at Hyderabad, while directing 18th International Children's Film Festival of India.](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/a5910c3b-7e08-4577-845b-f7eb0893359a.webp) *Photo: Akhil RD · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akhil_RD_with_Ranbir_Kapoor.jpg)* ## Kapoor Pushes Back On The AI Assumption Kapoor described the rise of online “CG critics,” according to Mashable India, and said some viewers underestimate what goes into computer-generated imagery. MensXP, quoted by Mashable India, reported him saying there were “countless hours” of work behind the film, with artists working for years. He also pointed to Tiwari and Malhotra sitting on VFX calls since the project began, down to choices as specific as the colour of the sky. That detail is useful because it cuts against the laziest version of the AI complaint. The objection may be that the trailer looks artificial. Fine. Say that. But the claim that it is just a prompt and a render flattens the labour of people whose names rarely get the trailer-frame attention that actors do. Kapoor also said it is now tricky to impress audiences with authentic CG, according to Mashable India. He is right about the mood. Viewers have seen enough digital spectacle to spot weak weight, bad light and empty scale. They also have enough AI anxiety to mistrust any image that looks too polished or too strange. Ramayana is walking straight into that suspicion. ![A photo of Namit Malhotra](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/c04ba8ae-fae1-4cc4-9587-018cf0de7945.webp) ![Namit Malhotra](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/318a0a02-0885-4c60-91e5-036ec333cfea.webp) *Photos: DNEG · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Namit_Malhotra_(cropped).jpg), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115145456)* ## Tiwari And Malhotra Ask For The Big Screen Test Outlook India reported that Malhotra argued viewers were judging the footage on phones and poor internet connections, rather than in the format intended by the filmmakers. He also said the team was spending millions of dollars on the project and wanted the visuals to be assessed fairly. Malhotra’s other point matters more: Outlook India reported that he said the VFX was not complete. That is common for major films, which start marketing while post-production is still moving. It is also a dangerous thing to ask audiences to keep in mind, because trailers are not private work files. Once released, they become the film’s handshake with the public. Tiwari, for his part, told Collider that the team was still adding final touches, according to Outlook India. Mashable India reported him saying some VFX sequences had taken two-and-a-half to three years. He also said that when someone is set on nitpicking, the smallest mistake can be amplified while the best effort is ignored. There is frustration in that answer, and it is easy to understand. It is also the deal now. A film this large does not get a quiet first look. It gets freeze-frames, zooms, comparison threads and instant verdicts. ## The Scale Is Enormous, And That Raises The Bar Variety reported that Ramayana is a two-part adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic, directed by Tiwari, with Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana. The trailer sets up Rama’s exile, Sita’s abduction and the larger war between righteousness and evil, according to Variety. Variety also reported that both parts were filmed for IMAX and that the two films together are budgeted at about $500 million. DNEG is handling the visual effects, according to Variety, while Outlook India noted the company’s Oscar-winning work on films including Inception, Interstellar and the first two Dune films. The music is another giant signal. Variety reported that Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman share score duties. Mashable India listed the larger cast, including Ravi Dubey, Sunny Deol, Rakul Preet Singh, Arun Govil, Kajal Aggarwal, Vivek Oberoi, Shobana, Kunal Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Sheeba Chaddha, Indira Krishnan, Anupam Kher and others. A film like this invites awe and suspicion at once. The more money, names and mythic weight attached to it, the less patience people have for anything that looks unfinished. Kapoor, Tiwari and Malhotra are asking for time. Viewers are asking for images that can survive the first look. ## What Comes Next For Ramayana The release plan is part of the argument. Mashable India reported that Part 1 is scheduled for theatrical release on November 8, 2026, with Part 2 due during Diwali 2027. Outlook India reported the first part for Diwali 2026 and the second for 2027. Variety reported that Sony Pictures is handling international distribution outside India, while Dharma Productions has India. The trailer has already done what a trailer must do: it made the film unavoidable. The harder task is still ahead. Ramayana has to make its digital heavens and battlefields feel lived in, not lacquered. It has to make viewers stop inspecting the frame and start believing in it. For now, the strongest defense from the team is also the simplest one: the film is not finished, it was made for a much larger screen, and some of those shots have been worked on for nearly three years. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Namit Malhotra](https://cinepixo.com/people/namit-malhotra) - [Ranbir Kapoor](https://cinepixo.com/people/ranbir-kapoor) - [Nitesh Tiwari](https://cinepixo.com/people/nitesh-tiwari) ## Sources - https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/7-roles-chetan-hansraj-ranbir-kapoor-ramayana-ravana-grandfather-brothers-demon-10832988/ - https://www.msn.com/en-in/entertainment/celebrities/ramayana-ranbir-kapoor-nitesh-tiwari-and-namit-malhotra-respond-to-vfx-criticism-people-think-someone-just-used-ai/ar-AA29UAjP - https://in.mashable.com/entertainment/112789/ranbir-kapoor-reacts-to-vfx-criticism-over-ramayana-trailer-video-tricky-to-impress-audience - https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/ranbir-kapoor-takes-dig-at-cgi-critics-bashing-ramayana-trailer-defends-vfx-work - https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ramayana-trailer-ranbir-kapoor-yash-1236819671/ Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/ranbir-kapoor-says-ramayanas-vfx-backlash-mistakes-years-of-work-for-ai Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.