A near four minute English trailer for Ramayana: Part 1 has sparked conversation well beyond its scale and spectacle. What caught immediate attention was something far more precise: the way the characters appear to speak English with uncanny fluidity, giving the trailer the finish of a native performance rather than a standard dubbed cut.
That distinction is exactly what producer Namit Malhotra set out to explain. As the film begins shaping its international pitch, he detailed a multi-step process that starts with human voice work, passes through artist-led lip-sync design, and finally uses AI-assisted finishing created specifically for cinema screens.
Namit Malhotra Breaks Down The English Lip Sync Process
Speaking about the workflow, Malhotra stressed that the first stage was built around actors and voice performers, not artificial intelligence. “If you’ve seen that, where we’ve got tremendous praise, where we’ve actually brought in human actors, voice actors, who actually come in and performed the voice performances. Some of them actually are done by the actors themselves, who have a good command over the language and are able to emote appropriately in a different language,” he said.
He then underlined the creative priority behind that choice. “So we’ve done that as a first step to make sure that the rendering of that expression and emotion is authentic, and it’s led by humans. There is no AI whatsoever,” he added.
Malhotra explained that the next phase was also human-led, this time focused on building the base movement of the lips to match the newly recorded dialogue. “There is no AI whatsoever. We followed that up with what we’re calling, because we are trying to make the lip sync in line with the voice. So we have a next step, which is again done by humans, where you actually have people coming in, what we call a human driver that actually creates this foundation of how the lips actually move and how it syncs itself to the voice itself,” he explained.
Inside Dneg’s Bespoke Theatrical Lip Sync Finish
From there, the process moves into a more complex visual stage, where voice performance, facial structure and screen illusion have to align without breaking the audience’s immersion. “And it looks appropriate because the best voice actor may not have the right face for the actor on screen. So we are making sure that you’ve got the voice actors, we’ve got people whose faces and lips match the look of the actors,” Malhotra said.
He added, “And then we’re using bespoke technology tool that we’ve created, leveraging AI, to stitch that into the face of the actor so it feels absolutely seamless.”
For Malhotra, the ambition is not novelty for its own sake, but a version that lets international audiences stay inside the drama. “So when you’re now watching it, you feel like you’re watching them actually speak with that authenticity and emotion, whilst not being taken away by subtitles and, you know, dubs that never quite deliver what’s happening,” he said. He further explained, “This is sort of how the technology was created, again, to deliver at a cinematic quality and not just as, you know, something you can pull up in front of a phone and speak in multiple languages, that’s much easily done. And that’s not where you need this level of fidelity.”
That creative choice also points to the film’s larger global ambition, with the English trailer functioning as both a showcase for the story and a test case for how Ramayana: Part 1 will travel across markets.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, Ramayana: Part 1 is the first chapter of a two-part epic backed by Prime Focus Studios, DNEG and Monster Mind Creations. Led by Ranbir Kapoor, Yash and Sai Pallavi, the film also features Sunny Deol, Ravie Dubey and Rakul Preet Singh in key roles. More than a cast reveal or release reminder, the English trailer positions the November 6, 2026 worldwide theatrical rollout as a distinctly international event, with technology being used not as a gimmick but as a bridge between performance and global reach.
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