Four hours in a makeup chair every single morning will test any actor's sanity.
For Chetan Hansraj, that grueling daily ritual was the price of admission to anchor the opening sequence of director Nitesh Tiwari's ₹1,500 crore mythological epic, Ramayana. Hansraj stepped into the skin of Raja Mali—the brutal demon king and maternal grandfather of Ravana—wearing heavy silicone prosthetics, custom textures, and dense facial armor before stepping onto the production volume.
The physical toll was real.
"The visual madness you are all seeing on the big screen doesn't happen in isolation," Hansraj shared, offering an unvarnished window into the mechanical craft behind the screen spectacle. "It takes a village of absolute masterminds to build a cinematic universe of this scale. Massive respect to our visionary director Nitesh Tiwari for steering this colossal ₹1,500 crore ship and trusting me to anchor the opening sequence."
Turning an actor into an ancient, terrifying warlord demanded a specialized international crew. Makeup artist Virginia Holmes spearheaded the transformation, spending four hours each dawn sculpting Raja Mali’s brutal facial structure onto Hansraj.
Once the prosthetics dried, the real physical labor began.
Hansraj teamed with veteran Hollywood action and movement director Terry Notary—known across the industry for designing motion and creature kinetics in the Planet of the Apes franchise, X2, Superman Returns, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Notary dissected the posture, gait, and center of gravity needed to sell the mythic terror of a demonic warlord.
We spent hours breaking down the exact physics and psychology of a demon king so that every single movement felt lethal.
On the combat side, stunt coordinator Ian Van Temperley engineered heavy-impact sequences built around merciless axe swings, while animation supervisor Andrew Doucette processed the raw performance-capture files into the final digital renders.
| Production Parameter | Technical Detail |
|---|---|
| Reported Production Scale | ₹1,500 Crore Multi-Part Feature |
| Character | Raja Mali (Maternal Grandfather of Ravana) |
| Daily Makeup Duration | 4 Hours (Led by Virginia Holmes) |
| Movement & Mocap Direction | Terry Notary (Planet of the Apes) |
| Action & Stunt Design | Ian Van Temperley |
| VFX / Performance Capture | Andrew Doucette |
With Ramayana: Part One already on cinema screens following its worldwide release on November 5, audiences have had their first taste of Tiwari's sprawling canvas. The production now pivots toward the next phase, with the second chapter locked in for a 2028 theatrical rollout.