Actor Yash, who plays Ravana in Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming mythological epic ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend’, got candid about his kids’ reaction to watching him bring one of the biggest villains to life on the big screen. The actor, who brought his wife and kids – Ayra and Yatharv – revealed their honest reaction after the ‘Ramayana’ world premiere, where they watched the film for the first time.While speaking to a news channel, during the final leg of film promotions, Yash shared his son’s particularly emotional reaction to his character Ravana battling Jatayu. In the clip that is now going viral, Yash said that his children were eager to ask him questions about the film. “They are understanding how to behave, how to respect one another. I was so surprised to see my son’s reaction,” he said. As he went on to share his son’s emotional reaction to a battle scene, co-star Sai Pallavi couldn’t hold back her smile as she recalled, Yatharv became upset while watching Ravana kill Jatayu. “He said to Yash, ‘I didn’t like you killing that bird.’”
Sai Pallavi reveals Yash’s son cried after watching him as Ravana
She went on to explain, “He knows that it is his daddy and that he has done movies before and that maybe they were acting. But he said, ‘No, it is not nice. It is not good that you kill the bird even in the movie. I don’t think you should have done that.’ It was such a beautiful moment.”
Yash on the challenge of playing Ravana
Beyond sharing his children’s reaction, Yash also spoke about the challenges of portraying Ravana, explaining, “For me, to make everybody believe that it is impossible to defeat him, that he is invincible, getting to that phase was the challenging part.” Yash further added, “When you are portraying that role, if you are not convinced yourself and if you are not presenting it in the manner it is supposed to be, people will not feel it. I may fail the whole thing where people say, ‘He is good, but the role is good.’ There is a difference between Ravana being strong and me portraying Ravana to be strong. That is the gap I am talking about.”The actor also wanted to move beyond the conventional portrayal of Ravana as a villain. He said, “Sometimes you want to give people another point of view, give them an opportunity to understand that he also had some good qualities. It is not just black and white. To let people reason with him, understand what he was trying to do and where he went wrong. That was quite interesting and challenging for me.”
Yash on portraying Ravana
Yash further explained how he wanted the character’s power to be evident in his expressions and personality rather than just his appearance. “It should be in the eyes. Not just in the physical appearance,” he said and added, “Imagine, this is the man who was the ruler of three realms. He was that powerful. When he is talking, how would he talk? Generally, we assume he will talk with arrogance or pride. But I did not want to take that approach. I wanted him to have sarcasm, wit, a touch of vulnerability. That was what I was looking for.”Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, ‘Ramayana’ features Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Ravi Dubey as Lakshmana. The film’s music is composed by Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman. ‘Ramayana’ is scheduled to release worldwide on November 5, 2026.