Ranbir Kapoor's Ramayana teaser has left many impressed, however, many netizens are concerned about the VFX of the film. The 2-minute-38-second teaser does feature a few visually striking moments, but many netizens feel it relies too heavily on CGI, giving the film an AI-brushed appearance.
Several viewers took to the comments section to express concerns, saying the visuals look overly artificial and resemble AI-generated imagery.
This reaction comes as a surprise as the reported budget of the film is Rs 4,000 crore. The VFX for the magnum opus is being executed by DNEG, where Namit serves as CEO. The company has an impressive legacy, having won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects eight times.
Audience not happy with Ramayana VFX, says it feels like Adipurush
Three years ago, Adipurush was criticised for its terrible VFX. Now, in 2026, Namit Malhotra's Ramayana is getting similar reviews from fans. While some were impressed by the teaser, many pointed out that the VFX does not look up to the mark.
One netizen who watched the teaser wrote, "Mixed feelings! Underwhelming! Expected better! I remember your conversation with sadhguru, one of the best, expected that more than the VFX which looks cartoonish and this again makes the world believe that it was just a imaginary story. Could be more philosophically focused and grounded," while another commented, "Why is the lighting so overdone. The vfx is good but because of every frame being so lit it does not give the realistic feel that movies like avatar and dune gives. After having such a big budget it still does not look real."
Another netizen pointed out how the VFX does not justify the massive budget for the film, "See, I've been waiting for this for so long and always hoped it would become something bigger than anything else. But I don't know why-it feels a bit like a video game. Maybe the CGI and VFX work isn't finished yet, 1:37 but you can't use that as an excuse for a film with a ₹4000 crore tagline. If this ends up being the final output, even if the actors give 1000% in their performances, it still won't be enough to recover the money put into making the movie itself. I really hope they can fix this before release. I pray to God that this doesn't disappoint the people who have high hopes for it to change Indian cinema. Because we've already seen that if the work is good, movies like Dhurandhar can make 100x even with a very small budget."
Another comment read, "Same mistake like Adipurush, too much CGI."
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Some netizens even compared it to Avatar, which had a lower budget but better VFX.
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Watch the teaser here:
Credit: Instagram
About Ramayana
Ramayana Part 1 is all set to release this Diwali. Other than Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi, Ramayana stars Sunny Deol as Hanuman, Ravi Dubey as Lakshman, Arun Govil as Dashrath, Indira Krishnan as Kaushalya, Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi, Sheeba Chaddha as Manthara, Vivek Oberoi as Vidyutjiva and Kajal Aggarwal as Mandodari.
Prime Focus Studios
Previously, talking about the film's budget, producer Namit Malhotra revealed, "When we set out to make this six or seven years ago, people thought I was a lunatic because no Indian film comes close to this scale. Put simply, the budget will be around $500 million for both parts combined, which is over Rs 4,000 crore."
Lead and social image credits: Prime Focus Studios