Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama

Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1997)

Has there ever been a story in which nature, God, man, and animals were so united in sorrow, fighting, and rejoicing together?

In Ayodhya, the royal palace of Kosala Kingdom in Ancient India, four princes were born to three queens, each of whom grew to great stature. Banished for 14 years due to court intrigue, Prince Rama retreated to the forest with his beautiful wife Sita. When Rama vanquishes the demons of the forest, he invites the wrath of the demon king Ravana, who kidnaps Sita. Based on the Indian epic the Ramayana.

Date of release
1997-11-03
TMDB
8.3 / 10 (64)
Runtime
2h 15m
Genres
Animation, Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director
Ram Mohan, Yûgô Sakô, Koichi Sasaki

Casting

Interesting facts

Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama is a 1993 Indo-Japanese anime film directed and produced by Yugo Sako, who co-directed the film with Koichi Sasaki and Ram Mohan. It is an adaptation of the Indian epic Ramayana. The film featured music composed by Vanraj Bhatia and was first released in India at the 24th International Film Festival of India. It was also screened at the 1993 Vancouver International Film Festival. Subsequently, a Hindi dubbed version was released in the late 1990s. On Jan 24, 2025, it was re-released in theatres in 4K with old English dub and new dubs in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Production

In 1983, while working on "The Ramayana Relics" a documentary film about excavations by Dr. B. B. Lal near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, India, Yugo Sako came to know about the story of Ramayana. He liked the story of the Ramayana so much that he researched deeper into the topic and went on to read 10 versions of the Ramayana in Japanese.

The Indian Express published an article about Yugo Sako's "The Ramayana Relics" documentary on 25 April 1983. Soon thereafter, a protest letter based on the misunderstanding from the Vishva Hindu Parishad was received by the Japanese Embassy in Delhi, which said that no foreigners could arbitrarily cinematize Ramayana because it was the great national heritage of India.

With no choice and support left, the movie was decided to raise all production funds in Japan and to produce with artists from both nations. TEM Co., Ltd. financed the production and a new production studio Nippon Ramayana Film Co., Ltd. was set up and the principal animation of the film began in 1990 with 450 artists on board.

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