Cinema VinesSony Pictures has unveiled the English trailer for Nitesh Tiwari’s epic film Ramayana: Part 1, giving global audiences a first glimpse of the movie’s grand scale and visual spectacle. While the teaser has drawn attention to its impressive special effects, it has also sparked conversation about the cutting‑edge technology used to align the actors’ mouth movements with the English dialogue.
Unlike traditional dubbing, where a new voice track is simply overlaid on the original footage, the English version of Ramayana: Part 1 employs DNEG’s AI‑powered lip‑sync system to digitally adjust the actors’ mouth movements. Producer Namit Malhotra has explained that the process begins with human voice performances, rather than AI, to preserve the emotional authenticity of the characters.
“We started with human voice performances,” Malhotra told ET Now, noting that many of the principal cast members recorded their own English lines. “Some of them are fluent in the language and can convey the right emotion. That’s the first step, and there’s no AI involved at this stage.” He added that the human‑led approach was essential for maintaining the integrity of the performances.
Next, human artists created a foundation for how each character’s lips should move in sync with the new English dialogue. Malhotra described this as a “human driver” process, where specialists map out the mouth movements that correspond to the voice recordings. “Again, this is done by humans,” he said, emphasizing that the foundation is built without AI.
The final challenge was to ensure that the voice performance, facial appearance, and lip movements all worked together convincingly. Malhotra explained that the best voice actor might not match the on‑screen actor’s face, so the team had to carefully select voice actors whose facial features and lip shapes aligned with the original performers.
To achieve this, the team used a bespoke technology tool developed specifically for the project. “We’re leveraging a custom tool that we’ve created to finalize the lip‑sync,” Malhotra said, highlighting the blend of human expertise and specialized AI to deliver a natural, seamless result.
