Sharad Kelkar Details Dubbing Yash's Ravana As Ramayana Hits ₹511 Crore Domestically

Sharad Kelkar knows the weight of an iconic screen voice. When you step into a dubbing booth to breathe Hindi speech into an antagonist played by Kannada cinema titan Yash, half-measures are lethal. Speaking at the trailer launch of his upcoming film Kaali Kheti, Kelkar conceded that matching Yash's menacing turn as Ravana in Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Rise of a Legend pushed his vocal craft to its absolute limit.

Himself a seasoned voice artist whose baritone has elevated several screen epics, Kelkar opened his address by slipping straight into the demon king's booming cadence. The room went dead silent.

The Strain of Matching Yash's Restraint

But the bravado gave way quickly to unvarnished professional respect. Voicing Yash wasn't difficult because the material was complex. It was difficult because the performance in front of him was exceptional.

"Par honestly, I must tell you, it's not about the film, but I must give compliments to Yash," Kelkar said, breaking down the specific mechanics of the Kannada star's portrayal. "The way he's performed in the film, I think nobody could have done it. He is such a brilliant actor. Jo thehrav, jaise unhone kiya hai woh role, I think he's phenomenal."

That deliberate composure — the thehrav — made Kelkar's assignment twice as demanding. An over-the-top villain allows a voice actor to hide behind sheer decibel volume and theatrical cackles. A quiet, calculated megalomaniac offers no such cover. Every breath, pause, and whispered command must lock directly onto the physical lip movement and eyes of the performer.

"Isliye unko itna appreciation bhi mil raha hai film ke andar, and obviously itna achha kiya tha and... isiliye mujhko itna muskil bhi hui thi dub karne mein woh, because he was so good in the film," Kelkar admitted, calling the assignment the most gruelling voice gig of his career. "But thank you, you loved the film and you loved the voice, thank you."

Seven-Day Box Office Surge Clears ₹511 Crore

Beyond the dubbing studio, Tiwari's multi-starrer is churning out unprecedented numbers across Indian ticket windows. Releasing in theatres on Thursday, November 5, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend racked up an astonishing ₹511.10 crore nett domestic total across its extended seven-day opening frame.

Yet the sprint was hardly linear. After an explosive Thursday debut collecting ₹64.85 crore nett across languages, ticket sales slipped on Friday to ₹48.05 crore. The holiday weekend erased any early doubt. Saturday ticket windows rebounded sharply to ₹69.80 crore, before Sunday added another ₹56.15 crore to the running tally.

Then came the Monday anomaly. Defying the standard post-weekend box-office drop, the production logged a staggering 91.5 percent surge to bring in ₹107.50 crore nett in a single day. The momentum sustained through the middle of the week, sweeping up ₹94.10 crore on Tuesday and ₹70.65 crore on Wednesday to cruise past the half-thousand crore milestone.

The spectacle brings together Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, and Yash alongside Sunny Deol, Ravi Dubey, and Lara Dutta under Tiwari's cinematic canvas. With its opening chapter safely past the ₹500 crore milestone, the production now enters its second weekend tracking holdover patterns across suburban single screens and urban premium formats.