The new version of the Ramayan directed by Nitesh Tiwari, stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and Kannada superstar Yash as Ravan.

The three protagonists and the supporting cast won’t budge from the original Ramayan text as written by Valmiki by even an inch.

The shooting of Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayan has started. The scripting of this version will, according to a source very close to the project, be “Valmiki Redux… no tampering with the text at all. The version of the Ramayan that will be seen this time will be the closest possible visual rendition of Valmiki’s text.”

The source also informs that this version of the Ramayan has developed an aversion to scriptural changes .

“Nitesh Tiwari’s team has learnt its lessons from Om Raut’s Adipurish which tried to act smart with the Ramayan’s text, changed dialogues and characters, tried to make the Ramayan cool. None of that is happening this time,” says the informed source adding that this is a “ramrod straight, unflinchingly faithful rendition of the Ramayan.

For those who came in late, Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayan will be a three-segment project. Three different feature films to be released one after the other. The first segment will be about Lord Ram and Sita Mata’s banishment into the forest. The second feature film will be about Ravan’s kidnapping of Sita Mata and the third film will be about Sita Mata’s rescue.

The estimated budget of this massive epic -scaled Ramayan is approximately 600 crore rupees. It could go up to a lot more.