Three days before Ramayana opens in theatres, producer Namit Malhotra has shared the story of how one of Hollywood’s most recognised composers said yes. Hans Zimmer agreed to score the film after a short New York meeting, without ever reaching the end of the pitch deck he had been brought along to see.
A behind-the-scenes video from the makers shows Zimmer and AR Rahman working side by side while Indian and Western musicians record together. It is a rare pairing: two composers with separate musical vocabularies, one score, and two very different traditions being asked to speak as one.
“I ran six or seven slides, and he said, ‘Namit, it is okay. I don’t need to see it,'” Malhotra recalls in the video.
Why Zimmer’s name changes the conversation
The film already had scale. Nitesh Tiwari directs, with Ranbir Kapoor and Yash in key roles. Adding Hans Zimmer to AR Rahman turns the soundtrack into a second international calling card before a single song has been judged.
To understand why that matters, it helps to look at how the film is being sold. Ramayana is a story Indian audiences already know, but the global market has no automatic entry point for an epic built on Indian mythology. A composer with Zimmer’s track record gives foreign audiences and platforms a name they already trust, while Rahman gives the film its Indian musical grammar. The two names together make the pitch broader than the story alone.
Rahman said he usually prefers solo work because he does not like being precious about his material. In this case, however, he called Zimmer’s presence a blessing. His reasoning is practical: a viewer in New Zealand or Europe may not pause for an Indian name alone, but Hans Zimmer’s name makes them curious. “It’s a great move by the producer,” Rahman added.
Dividing a score, then bringing it together
The video offers a glimpse of the workflow. Rahman worked on certain songs and themes, Zimmer took on others, and the two kept exchanging material until the pieces suited the film. The clip frames that back-and-forth as a meeting of two musical systems, with Indian and Western players standing side by side.
Zimmer describes the project as “a journey that has never been done before,” built around Gods and traditions that make India important for Western audiences. That framing is not a throwaway line: it tells overseas viewers that this is not just another Indian film but a cultural event with global score ambitions.
What to watch before release
- Zimmer joined after a short New York meeting, without seeing the full pitch deck.
- Rahman and Zimmer split themes and songs, then exchanged material to unify the score.
- Ramayana opens in theatres on 5 November, with the music positioned as a global calling card.
Source: Hindustan Times