Aarya Babbar is stepping into one of Indian mythology’s most demanding roles. In MAHABALI, the new Broadway-style stage adaptation of the Ramayana told from Lord Hanuman’s perspective, Babbar plays Ravan — and he says audiences will see a side of the Lankan king they haven’t met before.
A Ravan with grey, not black
Speaking to Filmibeat ahead of the play’s first show this weekend, Babbar said this version belongs first to director-writer Kulvinder Singh Bakshi’s vision. He argued that Ravan has rarely been portrayed with depth and complex layers, and that earlier TV and Ram Lekha versions were “out-and-out black” and massy.
“This is the first time that I am portraying Ravan with a very grey and very different complexity,” he added, saying the material is written with emotion and layering that audiences would love. The title, he said, points to the production’s larger framing: all these characters are, at the end of the day, Mahabali.
‘The most humane character’
Babbar didn’t stop at calling the role complex. He told Filmibeat, “Ravan is the most humane character in the entire mythology.” His reasoning: Ravan is honest about his emotions — anger, family, the mistakes he sticks to under the pressure of society, kingdom and relationships. That, Babbar believes, is what makes him recognisably human.
He also nudged audiences to look beyond the usual shorthand that treats a mythological villain simply as bad. Instead, he asked why a figure so blessed by Mahadev and so intellectually gifted could become grey and villainous. In MAHABALI, he says, that question is the doorway into the character.
- The premise: A Broadway-style Ramayana told from Lord Hanuman’s viewpoint.
- The role: Aarya Babbar plays Ravan with a grey, layered reading rather than a black-and-white villain.
- The argument: Ravan’s honest emotions make him mythology’s most humane figure.
- The advice: Raj Babbar’s mantra — feel the performance, or the audience won’t believe it.
Raj Babbar’s advice
Babbar also spoke about following his father, veteran actor Raj Babbar, into epic mythological territory after the senior actor’s work in B.R. Chopra’s iconic Mahabharat. The advice he carries, he said, is to play every role with “utmost realistic emotion.”
“If what I perform I do not believe in, the audience will not believe in it,” Babbar recalled. For Ravan, that translates into a specific physical language: powerful, larger than life, distinct in walk and talk, so much so that even a silhouette from the back should read as Ravan.
Why it matters
For Hindi cinema and theatre fans, this is another sign of Indian mythology being staged with the scale and craft usually associated with international musicals. Babbar’s pitch to families is simple: MAHABALI is written to entertain and educate at the same time, and he wants the whole family to see it.
Source: Filmibeat