Noida: In Animal, Ranbir Kapoor appeared with long, textured hair, an uneven beard and the volatile physicality of a man who seemed permanently close to violence. This Diwali, he will appear almost at the opposite end of the spectrum. In Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, Ranbir plays Rama — dressed in vanvas robes, bow in hand, with a visual language built not around rage, but around composure, restraint and stillness. Same actor. Same face. But the distance between Ranvijay in Animal and Rama in Ramayana is not really about costume alone. It is about everything that happens to an actor’s face, hair, posture and silhouette before he has even spoken a line.
When Grooming Becomes Character Work
Ranbir Kapoor’s Ranvijay look in Animal was not accidental. Celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim, who worked closely with Ranbir and director Sandeep Reddy Vanga on the film, has spoken about how specifically the character’s hair and beard were designed. Hakim said the hairstyle was created with “a lot of texture and a free flow movement”, while the beard had a strong shape but was deliberately kept from looking too clean at the edges. He also said Vanga held multiple discussions with him about the precise length of Ranbir’s hair and beard because the grooming had to reflect the emotional phase Ranvijay was going through. The hair could not look too polished. The beard could not look overly groomed. Yet the character still had to appear physically powerful and dangerous on screen. That is where grooming stops being cosmetic and becomes character design. Ranvijay’s appearance was not supposed to make him look conventionally attractive. It was supposed to make him believable.
Why This Transformation Is Being Watched So Closely
Ranbir Kapoor has transformed his appearance several times before. Rockstar moved him from the relatively clean-cut Janardhan into the increasingly wild and unkempt Jordan. Bombay Velvet reshaped his silhouette for the street-fighter Johnny Balraj and Sanju required him to physically move through different decades of Sanjay Dutt’s life, with changes in hair, facial hair, body type and styling marking each stage. But Ramayana carries a different kind of challenge. Rama is not a fictional character audiences are encountering for the first time. He already exists in the visual memory of millions of viewers through devotional art, temple iconography, calendar imagery, religious performance and popular culture.
For one generation in particular, that image was also shaped decisively by Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 television adaptation, with Arun Govil as Rama. That means every visual choice around Ranbir — how he walks, sits, holds a bow, looks at another character, smiles, speaks or remains silent — will be judged against an image that already exists in the viewer’s mind. The filmmakers are not creating from a blank canvas. They are negotiating with memory.
Arun Govil Says Ranbir Comes Closest
That is why Arun Govil’s reaction to Ranbir carries unusual weight. Govil, who played Rama in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan and now plays King Dasharatha in Tiwari’s film, has spoken about seeing specific qualities in Ranbir’s physicality and behaviour that reminded him of how he himself had imagined Rama. In a behind-the-scenes featurette released by the makers, Govil said the way he had imagined Rama walking, sitting, looking and speaking were qualities he could see in Ranbir. He also pointed to Ranbir’s behaviour off camera, noting that the actor regularly touches his feet as a gesture of respect. Govil then offered perhaps the strongest endorsement possible from someone so closely associated with the role: “Among all the young stars who are available at the moment, Ranbir Kapoor is the closest to play Lord Rama.”
That endorsement matters not because Govil gets to determine how audiences will respond, but because he represents one of the most deeply embedded screen images of Rama in modern Indian popular culture.
Casting Rama Was ‘Next to Impossible’
Director Nitesh Tiwari has also spoken about how difficult it was to cast the role. In the same behind-the-scenes material, he described Rama as an almost impossible ideal to embody fully and suggested that any actor could only attempt to come close to that image. Reports on the featurette say Tiwari felt Ranbir “checked all the boxes” when his name came up for the part. That difficulty is understandable. A contemporary film star comes with accumulated baggage. Audiences remember previous performances. They remember public appearances. They remember characters that became culturally dominant.
In Ranbir’s case, the shadow of Animal is particularly recent and powerful. Ranvijay was loud, violent, physically aggressive and emotionally volatile. Rama, at least in the visual language suggested by the promotional material released so far, is being built around control, dignity and calm. So the transformation has to do more than alter Ranbir’s hairstyle. It has to interrupt the audience’s memory of the actor.
The Hardest Part May Be Stillness
That may be why Ramayana could represent one of Ranbir Kapoor’s most difficult transformations. With Sanju, prosthetics, body changes and styling helped signal that he was becoming another recognisable public figure. With Animal, hair, beard and physicality amplified menace. With Rama, the challenge is almost the reverse. Too much visible performance could make the portrayal feel theatrical. Too little could make it feel distant. The balance lies in posture, gaze, movement and restraint. It is about how someone enters a frame. How long they hold eye contact. How they respond rather than react. How much emotion is communicated without turning every moment into an acting showcase. That is a transformation no beard or costume can achieve on its own.
From Ranvijay to Rama
Ramayana: Part 1 is scheduled to release in theatres in Diwali 2026, with the second part planned for Diwali 2027. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana, with Arun Govil as Dasharatha and an extensive ensemble cast. The visual transformation is already one of the project’s most closely watched elements. But the real test will not be whether audiences think Ranbir Kapoor looks different from Ranvijay. It will be whether, once the film begins, they stop seeing Ranbir Kapoor at all. That is ultimately the hardest part of playing a figure as culturally familiar as Rama. Not looking the part. Being accepted in it.
