India’s most expensive movie ever is Ramayana, which is one of the latest 2026 movie releases to hit theaters. The movie was a massive undertaking, and that’s evident just by watching the trailer. All in all, the film is firmly steeped in the culture its representing. But, even though the flick was made thousands of miles from Hollywood, a producer was very much inspired by one of our greatest filmmakers, Christopher Nolan, as CinemaBlend recently learned.
Did you know that Ramayana is co-composed by Hans Zimmer? The German musician has become one of the most beloved and prolific composers of modern cinema, and that’s exactly why the movie’s producer, Namit Malhotra, asked for him to come aboard the filmmaking team. Here’s how he told us the story during CB’s exclusive Ramayana interview:
I grew up in India completely fanboying on A.R. Rahman, who I absolutely love and his music has sort of formed a big part of my growing up and childhood and youth. And then, I moved to L.A. in 2010, the year Inception came out. I started to fall in love with Chris Nolan and Han Zimmer’s music that was done for The Dark Knight and all the films that came subsequent to that. And, it was one of those moments when we decided to make Ramayana. I said literally as a fanboy, ‘What if I could take Han Zimmer and A.R. Rahman together and they would create a new sound, a new feeling, a new energy that the world has not heard before?’ And everybody is like, ‘Yeah, why not?’
Malhotra called himself a self-described “fanboy” of Nolan movies who’s been in awe of his movies for a while. So, when he went on to make his own epic, he thought he’d take the long-shot move to try to get Zimmer on board for Ramayana alongside his favorite composer from India, A.R. Rahman. (Did you know Zimmer actually helped convince Nolan to make Interstellar, by the way? A greatly overlooked detail is just how important musicians like him are pivotal to the filmmaking process.) As Malhotra added:
One thing I learned in America, there’s no harm in asking because the worst you’ll be told is ‘No’. That’s not how we grew up in India. Like you normally don’t ask the question if you think the answer is no.
Even though Namit Malhotra had never met Zimmer and didn’t know would react to the request, the producer took “a cue from [his] American friends” and reached out to the Interstellar composer. This is what happened next:
I made a pitch and a presentation to him. I couldn’t have been more surprised by his intellect, his intuitive judgment because he was like, ‘Namit, you don’t have to sell me on Ramayana. If something has existed in the world for over 5,000 years and generation after generation, more people are excited to consume it, learn from it, and it’s still not lost its relevance, there must be more than what you and I can understand. So we should just figure out how we do this and not worry about whether we should do it.’
The idea really does sell itself, doesn’t it? Ramayana is a Hindu epic poem that’s very central to India’s culture. It has inspired the celebrations of Diwali and Dussehra, and the story also serves as a moral cornerstone as well. It focuses on two characters: Rama and Ravana. Prince Rama is the seventh incarnation / avatar of Lord Vishnu, who becomes responsible for taking down King Ravana from having uncontrollable power over people. It’s India’s own classic good vs. evil story, and it has really stood the test of time.
I’m no sure how aware Zimmer was of the legend of Ramayana before it was pitched to him, yet he was apparently sold quite quickly. He got the importance of it being told for the big screen. Malhotra told us that Zimmer’s reaction to his pitch even “revalidated” his own reasons to make it and “reinvigorated [his] own confidence” since he respects the composer so much.
Hans Zimmer is a busy musical savant, who’s recently worked on the Dune movies and the upcoming Harry Potter TV series, so he could have easily passed, but he clearly didn’t want to. And, as a result of his participation, one of Hollywood’s best got to put his mark on a historical Indian film. You can hear Zimmer’s original music for Ramayana, which is playing in theaters around the world right now.