Ram Setu 2022 | Akshay Kumar | Bollywood Movie

Ram Setu (translate. Rama’s bridge) is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Abhishek Sharma.

Star Cast : Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Satya Dev and follows an archeologist who is investigating the true nature of Ram Setu, known in English as Adam’s Bridge.

The film was announced in November 2020 with the principal photography commencing in Mumbai on 30 March 2021. 

Production suffered setbacks and delays amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Filming resumed in October 2021 and wrapped up in January 2022 taking place near Ooty, Daman and Diu and Mumbai.
The film is scheduled for a theatrical release on 25 October 2022 during Diwali festivities.

According to a report in The Financial Express, director Abhishek Sharma has been trying to build a plot since 2007 when he became aware of a court case involving Ram Setu. The film is co-produced by Akshay Kumar’s mother Aruna Bhatia and Vikram Malhotra under the production companies Kumar’s Cape of Good Films, Abundantia Entertainment, Lyca Productions and Amazon Prime Video. This is Amazon’s first Bollywood production in India.

 Aruna Bhatia died in September 2021. Chandraprakash Dwivedi was signed up as the creative producer. Kumar touted the film to be “a bridge between generations past, present and future”. Co-producer Vikram Malhotra, CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, touted that the film to be “a story formed on facts, science and historical heritage”.

Casting

In early March 2021, media reports confirmed that Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha were signed up to play lead roles in the film opposite Kumar. In June 2021, Satyadev Kancharana revealed that he will be a part of the film marking his debut in Hindi cinema.

Filming

The official announcement of the film was made on 14 November 2020 coinciding with Diwali. Earlier reports in December 2020 suggested that the film shooting would take place in Ayodhya and in the proposed film city in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of National Capital Region in Uttar Pradesh. The muhurat shot followed by a puja ceremony by the team was held on 18 March 2021 at Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya. A planned visit to Ram ki Paidi ghats in Ayodhya by the lead actors was cancelled due to a large uncontrolled gathering of people.

COVID-19 break

The principal photography began on 30 March 2021 in Mumbai. A massive set was constructed in Madh Island where shooting was scheduled to start from 5 April.

 However, on 4 April, Kumar was tested positive for COVID-19, and a day later, on 5 April, 45 members of the filming crew were tested positive, leading to the filming being indefinitely halted. 

Co-producer Malhotra denied the reports and claimed it to be “absolutely inaccurate and a total misrepresentation of facts” and said that 25 people who were tested positive, at an off-location testing site, were removed from those who qualified to be a part of filming crew.

At the same time, the Government of Maharashtra imposed a lockdown to curb the spread of second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.This, combined with the crew testing positive, led the filmmakers to cancel the Mumbai schedule and demolish the set in Madh Island. Kumar then went on work on his other films, including Raksha Bandhan,Mission Cinderella which had a two-month long schedule in London that ended in October, before returning to shooting for Ram Setu.

Shooting

After earlier reports indicated that the filming would resume in September 2021, it was later resumed by mid-October 2021 starting with a schedule in Ooty. Major underwater action scenes, oceanic shoots and climax were planned to be shot in Sri Lanka. However, it was not possible due to COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka which made it difficult for the filming team to travel under the quarantine restrictions. The filmmakers scouted for an alternate location in Kerala and Gujarat. Due to rising cases of COVID in Kerala, it was not selected. At the end, Daman and Diu was chosen for shooting. Some of the scenes were also shot in Mumbai and the sequences were finished. By 5 December, shooting in Diu was completed. On 31 January 2022, Kumar wrapped up shooting.

Marketing

In late April 2022, the filmmakers released a poster depicting Akshay Kumar, Satyadev and Fernandez. The poster, which went viral, was soon met with cyber-trolling on social media in the form of memes as Akshay Kumar is seen holding a burning torch while Fernandez is seen holding a powerful torchlight. A one-minute teaser was released on 26 September 2022.

Release

Theatrical release

As of August 2022, the film is set to release on 25 October 2022, during Diwali festivities.

Home media

After the theatrical release, the film is scheduled to be available for streaming worldwide exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.