Yash's Ravana costume in Ramayana weighs 33 kg, crown alone 1.8 kg

Audiences are keenly awaiting director Nitesh Tiwari's 'Ramayana', and the looks of its cast and their characters are widely discussed. Ranbir Kapoor plays Lord Ram, Sai Pallavi is Sita, and southern actor Yash plays Ravana. Yash's look as Ravana is drawing fans' attention, and several interesting details of the effort behind it have now emerged.

Saniya, the film's costume stylist and designer, recently spoke about Yash's Ravana costume in an interview. According to her, Yash had to wear a costume weighing a full 33 kg for the role. It included clothing, jewellery, armour and other design elements. His crown also weighed about 1.8 kg.

Saniya said some of Ravana's special costumes weighed between 30 and 33 kg. These include the Lanka costume, Ravana's wedding costume and the one worn at Shurpanakha's wedding. Most of the other costumes, including the jewellery, weighed around 16 to 20 kg.

The hardest part of Ravana's look was making the crown. Several 3D crowns were first prepared before the final design was settled. Many experiments were also tried to reduce its weight, but it could not be made lighter than 1.8 kg. Saniya also said that despite wearing such a heavy crown, Yash's facial expressions gave no hint of his discomfort.

Shooting in such a heavy costume was not easy for Yash. After every shot he would take off some parts of the costume and set them aside. Turning his neck while wearing the crown, and moving his arms with armour on his chest and a heavy structure on his shoulders, was like a strenuous workout. Yash often had to give several takes so that every movement looked natural.

Efforts were made to make the costume as comfortable as possible. Even so, its weight and fitting all the parts together properly remained a big challenge. Despite this, Yash kept up his enthusiasm throughout the shoot. These details give an idea of how much effort Yash has put into playing Ravana effectively on screen.