Ramayana Gets Bombay High Court Anti-Piracy Order as Pre-Sales Top ₹100 Crore

The Bombay High Court has granted the makers of "Ramayana: Part One" a dynamic ad-interim injunction against piracy, three days before the Nitesh Tiwari-directed epic opens in theaters worldwide on Nov. 5. The order, passed Monday, Nov. 2, by Justice Madhav Jamdar, came as the film's advance ticket sales climbed past ₹100 crore worldwide, according to trade figures reported by Hindustan Times and the tracker Sacnilk.

The injunction restrains unidentified "John Doe" entities and digital platforms from recording, hosting or streaming the film without authorization, legal news site Bar and Bench reported. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana and Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman.

What the court ordered

The order was passed in a copyright suit filed by Godpower Media Private Limited, a Mumbai-based company that holds the copyright and exploitation rights in the film after acquiring all its domestic and territorial intellectual property rights, according to Bar and Bench. The suit sought protection for the film's script, characters, footage, lyrics and recordings.

"Prima facie, the plaintiff (Godpower) has real and well-founded apprehension that the film or parts of it will be recorded and uploaded, streamed, or communicated to the public on various platforms," Justice Jamdar noted, as quoted by Bar and Bench and The Times of India.

The court directed internet service providers and social media intermediaries to block or take down infringing links and mirror websites once they receive written notice from Godpower. Because the injunction is dynamic, the rights holder can notify platforms of newly discovered pirate links without returning to court for a fresh order each time. Counsel for Google LLC and other global social media intermediaries recorded no objection to the order and assured the court they would act promptly once offending links are notified, the reports said. The ad-interim protection runs until the next hearing, scheduled for Dec. 16, 2026.

Trailer leaks and a ₹4,000 crore outlay

According to the reports, the court was told that Part One was produced at an outlay of ₹2,000 crore and that the combined budget for the two-part film is ₹4,000 crore. Godpower told the court that both trailers had been secretly recorded at invite-only preview screenings and circulated online despite strict non-disclosure obligations.

Legal news site 24Law reported that senior counsel for the plaintiff submitted that portions of the first trailer, screened at an invite-only event at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on July 18, 2026, had been recorded and circulated on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube, and that a cybercrime complaint was lodged in Mumbai. The plaintiff also said segments of the second trailer, released on Oct. 15, leaked before their official release, and that at least 4,500 infringing links relating to leaked material had been detected. It further pointed to dormant links already online purporting to offer the film for free, which it said could become active once pirated copies appear.

CNBC-TV18 reported that clips from the trailer also surfaced on social media in July after it was screened at San Diego Comic-Con, and that the trailer's digital release, initially scheduled for July 24, was postponed shortly before its planned launch.

Advance bookings past ₹100 crore

The court order arrives as the film posts one of the strongest pre-release runs for an Indian title. As of 9 a.m. IST on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the film's advance bookings in India stood at ₹72.91 crore gross across five show dates including blocked seats, or ₹57.9 crore excluding them, with 18.56 lakh tickets sold across 59,822 shows, Business Today reported, citing Sacnilk. Opening day accounted for ₹32.37 crore gross. Hindi contributed ₹57.83 crore, or 82 percent of the total, and Maharashtra led all states with ₹14.02 crore.

Hindustan Times reported that by Tuesday morning the film had earned $5 million in overseas advance bookings, including over $1.5 million for U.S. paid previews on Nov. 4, taking its worldwide advance-booking gross to ₹105 crore. The paper said the number of screens had increased to over 5000, with over 1500 added in the previous 24 hours, after the film's Hindi distributor, Dharma Productions, ended a revenue-share stalemate with exhibitors. Only a handful of Indian films, including Baahubali 2, RRR, Pushpa 2 and Dhurandhar 2, have crossed ₹100 crore in advance bookings, according to Hindustan Times.

Exhibitors on the pre-Diwali window

The release falls in the days before Diwali, a period traditionally considered slow for theatrical business. Kamal Gianchandani, chief of business planning and strategy at PVR INOX Limited, wrote on X on Nov. 3: "With Rs. 25 crore+ in advance ticket sales and two more days to go, Namit Malhotra's Ramayana has shattered the long-believed pre-Diwali jinx at the Indian box office!" He added, "It is now on course to record the BIGGEST pre-Diwali advance bookings in PVRINOX's 30+ year long history!" according to Bollywood Hungama.

In a separate statement reported by Moneycontrol, Gianchandani said bookings had crossed 4 lakh tickets across the PVR INOX circuit. "With bookings gathering strong momentum, we expect the numbers to cross the 1 million ticket mark by Wednesday night, ahead of its release on Thursday," he said. Ashish Saksena, COO of cinemas at BookMyShow, said the sustained momentum stood out "especially given the fact that the pre-Diwali period has traditionally been subdued for the theatrical business."

Produced by Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus Studios with DNEG and Yash's Monster Mind Creations, "Ramayana" will release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam across India, with Sony Pictures handling distribution outside India, Hindustan Times reported. The second part is set for Diwali 2027.