Ramayana’s English Trailer Uses AI-Assisted Lip Sync: Namit Malhotra Explains How DNEG Blends Human Performance With Technology

The English-language campaign for Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana is doing more than translating dialogue for an international audience. Producer Namit Malhotra has revealed that the team developed a specialised workflow combining human voice performances, performance-driven facial reference and artificial intelligence to make the actors appear to speak the translated dialogue naturally on screen.

Sony Pictures released the English trailer in August as part of Ramayana: Part One’s expanding international campaign. DNEG, meanwhile, officially describes the film as a production of Prime Focus Studios and DNEG in association with Monster Mind Creations, with Sony Pictures handling its global release.

What makes the English version particularly interesting is that the filmmakers have not treated localisation as a conventional dub in which new dialogue simply plays over unchanged facial movements. According to Malhotra, who is also the CEO of DNEG, technology is being used at the final stage of a process that begins with human performances.

Namit Malhotra says the process begins with performers, not AI

Speaking about the English-language workflow, Malhotra explained that the production first records the translated dialogue using human performers.

In an interview cited by Bollywood Hungama, Malhotra said the team brought in voice actors while some members of the original cast also recorded dialogue themselves when they were comfortable performing in English. He stressed that the emotional foundation of the translated performance is therefore created by people rather than generated artificially.

That distinction is important because describing the English trailer simply as an “AI dub” would misrepresent the process outlined by the producer.

The voice performance comes first. A second human-led stage then establishes how the new dialogue should translate into convincing facial and lip movement. Only after those elements are in place does the bespoke technology enter the workflow.

Malhotra described the final stage as using an AI-assisted tool developed to integrate those altered movements with the original actor’s face so the result does not resemble a visibly mismatched dub.

In a separate interview, he characterised the approach as a “man and machine combination”, adding that the emotional core remains human.

Why Ramayana's English trailer is different from a conventional dub

Anyone familiar with dubbed films has seen the limitation this technology is attempting to address.

An actor may say a short sentence in Hindi while the equivalent English sentence requires a different number of syllables and completely different mouth shapes. Even an excellent translation and voice performance cannot make the original photographed lip movement match automatically.

With Ramayana, the filmmakers are attempting to alter that final visual layer.

Malhotra explained that the process involves people providing a facial-performance foundation matching the translated dialogue, followed by specialised technology that integrates those movements with the on-screen performer. His stated objective is for audiences to concentrate on the acting and story rather than being constantly reminded that they are watching a translated version.

This is also why the workflow should not be described as AI independently recreating an actor's entire performance. Based on Malhotra's explanation, human voice acting and performance remain essential inputs.

Reports differ on exactly who recorded the English voices

There is one detail that deserves careful treatment.

Early coverage of the English trailer stated that Ranbir Kapoor, Yash, Sai Pallavi and other principal actors had recorded their own English dialogue. The Indian Express, for instance, reported that the lead cast had provided English-language performances themselves.

However, Malhotra's later and more detailed explanation is more nuanced. He said the production used human voice actors, with some performances done by the original actors themselves. Another account of his interview similarly says the production hired a group of voice performers for the localisation process.

For that reason, it would be premature to state categorically that every major actor personally dubbed every English line unless the production releases a full language-version voice cast.

The more defensible conclusion is that Ramayana uses a combination of original-cast participation and other human voice performances, with AI-assisted facial localisation applied afterward.

AI was already part of the wider Ramayana production ecosystem

The localisation experiment does not exist in isolation.

Prime Focus has previously confirmed that DNEG and ReDefine are handling visual-effects work on Ramayana, while its AI platform is also supporting the production through AI research and real-time virtual workflows.

Prime Focus's January 2026 investor presentation separately described its growing investment in AI technology and highlighted the development of proprietary tools under its AI platform while listing Ramayana among the group's major 2026 productions.

That provides useful context for Malhotra's localisation comments: the English lip-sync workflow appears to be part of a broader effort by the Prime Focus-DNEG ecosystem to integrate new technology into filmmaking rather than an isolated promotional experiment.

Ramayana is being positioned for audiences beyond India

The localisation strategy also makes more sense when viewed alongside the film's distribution plans.

DNEG's official announcement says the first trailer was initially launched globally in five Indian languages. The company identifies Sony Pictures as the film's global distributor, while Dharma Productions is handling distribution in North India's Hindi-speaking markets.

Prime Focus Studios similarly describes Ramayana: Part One as a production designed to bring the epic to audiences around the world.

Sony's subsequent English trailer pushed that strategy further. Its promotional announcement gives November 6, 2026 as the worldwide theatrical date.

The film is directed by Nitesh Tiwari and features Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman and Ravie Dubey as Lakshmana. DNEG's original project announcement also confirmed Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman as the film's composers and described the production as a two-part cinematic undertaking, with the second chapter planned after Part One.

The Celebrity Hour Take

The most interesting aspect of Ramayana's English trailer is not simply that artificial intelligence was involved. It is where the filmmakers decided AI should enter the creative process.

Malhotra's explanation presents a model in which the translated performance remains human: an actor delivers emotion, another performance establishes believable facial movement, and technology handles the difficult task of integrating those elements with the photographed face.

That is a considerably different proposition from replacing performers with generated voices or synthetic acting.

For Ramayana, the commercial reasoning is also clear. A project explicitly designed for worldwide theatrical consumption cannot rely only on subtitles if its producers want audiences in numerous territories to experience it as immediately as Indian viewers do. Traditional dubbing solves the language problem but creates a visual mismatch; this workflow is attempting to solve both simultaneously.

Whether that process remains convincing across an entire feature film rather than a four-minute trailer will be the more meaningful test.

If it works at theatrical resolution and across multiple languages, Ramayana could become a significant Indian case study in AI-assisted film localisation. The achievement would not be that machines replaced performance, but that technology made an existing human performance easier to carry across languages.

Sources & Verification

This report was independently researched using DNEG and Prime Focus Studios' official Ramayana production announcements, Prime Focus corporate disclosures, Sony Pictures' publicly released English-trailer announcement and Namit Malhotra's recorded comments as reproduced by established news organisations.

The Celebrity Hour also identified conflicting published descriptions of the English voice cast. Because Malhotra's detailed explanation says both professional voice actors and some original cast members contributed, this article does not claim that every principal actor dubbed the complete English version personally.