Mahesh Babu rarely minces words when an ambitious gamble pays off on celluloid. Taking to social media within hours of the theatrical rollout of Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, the Telugu superstar delivered an emphatic verdict on the sprawling mythological adaptation. He singled out the central triumvirate — Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, and Yash — branding their turns on screen as simply "magical."
"The stories we've grown up hearing since childhood, coming alive so beautifully on the big screen… makes me so happy," Mahesh Babu wrote, tipping his hat directly to Tiwari and producer Namit Malhotra for marshaling the vast resources required for a production of this magnitude. Tiwari wasted little time acknowledging the praise, responding directly: "Thank you so much, Mahesh Garu."
The high-profile endorsement arrived as ticket windows across India logged blistering numbers. The film notched an estimated ₹19.23 crore net across 14,194 shows by 4 PM on its second day, November 6. That sustained momentum pushed the two-day domestic net tally to ₹84.08 crore, lifting the nationwide gross past the century mark to ₹100.19 crore.
Language-wise, the Hindi belt drove the bulk of Friday's trade, bringing in ₹14.38 crore. Yash's commanding presence as Ravana anchored a ₹2.02 crore haul in Kannada, while the Telugu territories yielded ₹1.68 crore. Tamil and Malayalam circuits rounded out the ledger with ₹65 lakh and ₹50 lakh, respectively.
Epic cinema comes with steep expectations. Ramayana made its opening-day pitch on November 5 with a colossal ₹64.85 crore net bow, securing the slot as the second-biggest domestic opener of 2026. Only Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which exploded out of the gate with a ₹102.55 crore all-language debut, has posted a higher single-day launch this year.
With Kapoor stepping into the mantle of Lord Ram, Pallavi anchoring Sita, and Yash breathing fury into Ravana, Tiwari's adaptation has clearly survived its initial test at the turnstiles. The real trial begins as the film heads into its high-volume weekend, where trade observers will gauge whether word-of-mouth keeps multiplexes packed across both southern and northern circuits.