Bhubaneswar: When the much-awaited magnum opus ‘Ramayana hits the big screens, it won’t just be Ranbir Kapoor and Yash that India will be watching. Behind the 40-feet tall Kumbhakarna and a 30-feet Jatayu battling Ravana in the sky, there will be the invisible touch of a young artist from a small village in coastal Odisha.
Meet Bhramarabar Das from Belpal village under Rajnagar block in Kendrapada district – an animator who has taken his village to the global VFX map. Working as a part of the elite team at DNEG, a globally acclaimed visual effects and animation company, Bhramarabar is currently crafting the animation and 3D creature look development for Nitesh Tiwari’s ambitious ‘Ramayana’.
It is no small film. With nearly 10,000 people working on it, the film is being mounted as India’s biggest cinematic spectacle. He has been associated with the first instalment of ambitious project for the last five years. While the first part is complete after five years of relentless work, the second part is already underway and is scheduled for a Diwali 2028 release.
According to him, several characters from the epic could not be convincingly portrayed by human actors alone because of their extraordinary size and appearance. Characters like Kumbhakarna, who is depicted as 40-feet tall, and Jatayu, battling Ravana at a height of 30 feet, have been brought to life through computer-generated imagery and specialised visual development – the very world where Bhramarabar has established his expertise.
This is not his first brush with big-ticket Hollywood. Before Ramayana, the 2017 gold medallist from the Applied Art Department of Utkal University of Culture, has already left his mark on five major international productions, including Disney’s live-action spectacles ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘The Lion King’.
Currently posted at DNEG’s Bengaluru branch, Bhramarabar has been working from his home in Kendrapada since the Covid-19 pandemic, proving that talent needs no pin code. Today, his native village Belpal is beaming with pride. From neighbours to teachers, congratulatory messages are pouring in for the boy who dared to dream beyond boundaries.
From the quiet lanes of coastal Odisha to the roaring world of international cinema – Bhramarabar Das’s journey is a testament to what talent, perseverance and hard work can achieve. And for every young artist in Odisha who dreams of making it big, his story is the new epic.
