Lara Dutta BREAKS Silence on Playing Kaikeyi in Ranbir Kapoor Starrer Ramayana: 'Who Wouldn't Want...'

A few weeks ago, photos of actors Lara Dutta and Arun Govil from the sets of Nitesh Tiwari’s ‘Ramayana’ went viral on the internet. The viral pictures, obtained by Zoom, showed Lara Dutta and Arun Govil in their respective characters. Arun, known for playing the role of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s iconic Doordarshan show ‘Ramayan’, will be seen as King Dasharath in the Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Ramayana’. Lara, on the other hand, will play the role of Kaikeyi, one of the three wives of King Dasharath.

Now, in an interview with Indian Express.com, Lara has addressed the rumours about her playing Kaikeyi in the upcoming film. “I am hearing it a lot as well. I am leaving the rumors out there. I also like reading and hearing about them so please continue. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of Ramayana? There were so many characters I would have loved to play if it was offered to me – Surpanakha, Mandodari, I am playing them all (laughs),” she said.

Meanwhile, in the leaked photos, Arun was seen interacting with some young boys on sets, seemingly young Ram and his brothers. He sported a long beard and wore mukut (crown) on his head. Lara was dressed in red and gold saree and heavy gold jewellery.

Filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari has begun shooting for Ramayana, which features Ranbir as lord Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Yash as Ravana. The first part of the Ramayana trilogy is slated to release around Diwali 2025.

If a BollywoodLife report is to be believed, Ranbir is charging whopping Rs 75 crores as fees for the film. Apart from this, Yash is a co-producer on this mega project.

While confirming the same to Variety, Yash revealed, “It has been my long-term aspiration to make films that will showcase Indian cinema on a global level. In pursuit of that, I was in L.A. to ally with one of the best VFX studios, and to my amazement, the driving force behind it was a fellow Indian. Namit Malhotra and I had various ideation sessions, and coincidentally, our synergy on the vision for Indian cinema aligned perfectly. We brainstormed various projects, and during these discussions, the subject of ‘Ramayana’ came up. Namit had a part of it in the works… By joining forces to co-produce ‘Ramayana’ we are bringing together our collective vision and experience to create an Indian film that will ignite excitement and passion in audiences across the world.”