Ramayana or Ramayan? Ranbir Kapoor-Sai Pallavi's film title sparks debate as Industrialist questions 'anglicization' of words

Ever since the first glimpse of Ramayana starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, and Yash in key roles was revealed, there has been constant debate and discussions surrounding the film. Industrialist Nikhil Chitale, one of the owners of the Chitale group, questioned the film's title and has even demanded that it be changed to preserve Indian culture and linguistic authenticity.

Nikhil Chitale's demand for the Ramayana title to be changed sparks debate on social media

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Nikhil Chitale expressed his frustration and said that we must stop anglicizing our heritage. He wrote, “It’s Ramayan, not Ramayana. It’s Ram, not Rama. We need to avoid the anglicization of our words. Our heritage doesn’t need a colonial accent. It’s written by Valmiki, FYI.”

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His post grabbed attention and started a debate among netizens. One user wrote, "For the billionth time, hindi has schwa deletion cutting off अ from Sanskrit words. South indian languages don't have that and use samskritam pronunciation as it is. It is राम (rama). The ma is how you pronounce ma in मणि (mani).
Rama is NOT रामा ."

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Another user wrote, 'That's not anglicization. Kannada adds an a' at the end of almost every word, and that's not influenced by English. For Kannadigas, it is always 'Ramayana', 'Rama', 'Mahabharatha', 'Ganesha', 'Arjuna', 'Bheema'." "Surprised you didn’t say it is valmik, not valmiki.
I am sometimes surprised how Hindi speakers know zilch about Sanskrit. My great-grandfather, who was a dikshithar, would run around you in Sanskrit, and he didn’t know Hindi. Ramayan is a Hindi mutation of the Sanskrit", wrote the third user.

All about Ranbir Kapoor-Sai Pallavi's Ramayana

Ramayana: The Introduction and its sequel Ramayana: The Conclusion are produced by Namit Malhotra and have a massive budget of ₹835 crores ($98 million), making it the most expensive Indian film ever made. The film will star Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Sunny Deol as Hanuman, Ravi Dubey as Lakshman, Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi, Rakul Preet Singh as Surpanakha, Kajal Aggarwal as Mandodari, Kunal Kapoor as Indra Dev, and Sheeba Chaddha as Manthara.

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Ramayana: The Introduction and its sequel Ramayana: The Conclusion are produced by Namit Malhotra and have a massive budget of ₹835 crores ($98 million), making it the most expensive Indian film ever made. The music for the film is composed by legendary composer Hans Zimmer in collaboration with A. R. Rahman.

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The first part is scheduled for November 2026 release, while Ramayana: The Conclusion is being filmed and is slated for release in November 2027. Recently, the film set a new benchmark for Indian cinema as the poster was unveiled at a global level, ie, at NYC's Times Square.