RamleelaरामलीलाNavrang @ Vista 2026
The characters

Who you'll meet on stage

These are the original characters of the Ramayana, as Valmiki and Tulsidas wrote them and as Ramanand Sagar's serial brought them to life. Our own Vista residents, in the roles of a lifetime. Who plays whom stays a secret until the curtain rises.

13 on stage tonight1 off stage, the narrator's voice16 in the story, not on our stage
● On stage tonight

13 characters played by Vista residents

Ayodhya, the forest and the vanar army

● On stage tonight

Shri Ram श्री राम

Maryada Purushottam, the ideal man

Eldest son of King Dashrath of Ayodhya and the seventh avatar of Vishnu. Ram is the measure every other character is held against: a prince who gives up a throne the night before his coronation so that his father's word is kept, and who meets exile, loss and war without once raising his voice in anger.

Tonight: Accepts fourteen years of exile with a smile, hands his padukas to Bharat, eats Shabri's tasted berries, embraces Hanuman and Vibhishan, and lifts his bow against Ravan.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)Calm, soft-spoken and almost still. His strength shows in restraint rather than rage, and that gentleness is what a generation of viewers remembers.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Sita सीता

Janaki, daughter of the earth

Found by King Janak in a furrow of the earth and raised as the princess of Mithila. Sita follows Ram into the forest by her own choice and stays steadfast through captivity in Lanka. Her courage is quiet, but she never bends.

Tonight: Insists on sharing Ram's exile, is carried away from Panchavati, and waits in the Ashok Vatika for Ram.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial gives Sita a grave, composed dignity. Her scenes in the Ashok Vatika are some of the most remembered in the whole run.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Lakshman लक्ष्मण

The ever-watchful brother

Son of Queen Sumitra, Lakshman leaves the palace to guard Ram and Sita through every day and night of exile. Quick to anger whenever he sees injustice, he is just as quick to obey his elder brother.

Tonight: Flares up at Kaikeyi's demand, suspects Bharat's army, and stands beside Ram from Ayodhya to the battlefield.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial plays Lakshman with fire in his voice, a deliberate contrast to Ram's calm, and their scenes together draw their energy from it.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Bharat भरत

The brother who refused a crown

Kaikeyi's son, away at his grandfather's home when the exile is decreed. Offered a throne he never asked for, Bharat walks barefoot into the forest to bring Ram home. When Ram refuses, he rules for fourteen years from a hermitage, with Ram's sandals on the throne.

Tonight: The meeting at Chitrakoot, where he carries the padukas back to Ayodhya on his head.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)Bharat Milap is one of the serial's great emotional set pieces, played slowly and in tears.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Maharaj Dashrath महाराज दशरथ

King of Ayodhya, bound by his word

A great king of the Raghu line whose old promise to Queen Kaikeyi becomes his undoing. "Raghukul reet sada chali aayi, praan jaayi par bachan na jaayi": in his house a vow outlives a life, so Dashrath keeps his word and dies of grief.

Tonight: The kop bhavan, the two boons, and a father's collapse.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial makes Dashrath's grief its first great tragedy.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Mata Shabri माता शबरी

Devotion without ceremony

A tribal woman and disciple of Rishi Matang. Shabri spent a lifetime sweeping the path and gathering fruit for a guest her guru promised would come. When Ram arrives she tastes each ber first so that only the sweet ones reach him, and Ram accepts them as the purest food he has known.

Tonight: The jhoothe ber: love that cares nothing for ritual purity.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial treats Shabri's scene as one of its tenderest, a lesson that bhakti sees no caste.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Hanuman हनुमान

Pawanputra, the perfect devotee

Son of the wind god Vayu and minister to Sugriv. Hanuman meets Ram on Rishyamook and from that moment lives only to serve him. He leaps the ocean, finds Sita, gives her Ram's ring, and sets Lanka ablaze with his burning tail.

Tonight: The first meeting with Ram, the ring in the Ashok Vatika, and Lanka Dahan.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)For millions of viewers the serial's Hanuman, mighty and gentle at once, became the definitive picture of him.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Sugriv सुग्रीव

King of the vanars

Son of Surya, driven from Kishkindha by his brother Bali and hiding on Mount Rishyamook. Sugriv makes a pact of friendship with Ram over a sacred fire, and his vanar army, led by Hanuman, Angad and Jambavan, crosses the sea to Lanka.

Tonight: The friendship on Rishyamook, and the march to war.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)In the serial, the friendship sworn before the fire marks the point where Ram's exile becomes a campaign.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Vibhishan विभीषण

The righteous brother of Ravan

The one voice of conscience in Lanka's court. Vibhishan pleads with Ravan to return Sita, is kicked out for it, and crosses over to Ram, who welcomes him as a friend and crowns him the future king of Lanka. In the final battle he gives away the secret of the amrit in Ravan's navel.

Tonight: Banished from Lanka, received by Ram, and present at the end.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial shows Vibhishan's choice as a hard one: dharma over blood.

Cast revealed on stage

The queen who changed everything

● On stage tonight

Rani Kaikeyi रानी कैकेयी

The queen who claimed two boons

Dashrath's brave queen, who once saved him on a battlefield and earned two boons. Turned by her maid Manthara's whispers, she uses both on one night: the throne for Bharat, and exile for Ram. Her own son never forgives her.

Tonight: The kop bhavan: jewellery scattered, two boons claimed, an empire turned around in four minutes.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial takes Kaikeyi's change of heart slowly, so her fall reads as tragedy rather than villainy.

Cast revealed on stage

Lanka

● On stage tonight

Shurpanakha शूर्पणखा

Ravan's sister

Smitten by Ram in the Panchavati forest, Shurpanakha turns on Sita when she is refused. Lakshman wounds her, and she runs to her brother in Lanka. Her humiliation is the spark that lights the war.

Tonight: Panchavati, where a meeting in the forest turns into the first step towards war.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial plays the Panchavati episode as a turning point, shifting from forest idyll to looming war.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Maareech मारीच

The golden deer

A rakshas who had already felt Ram's arrows once and knew better than to cross him again. Forced by Ravan, Maareech takes the form of a golden deer to lure Ram away from the hut. As he dies, he cries out in Ram's voice.

Tonight: Ravan's court, and the shimmering deer of Panchavati.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The golden deer gave the serial one of its best-loved trick-photography moments.

Cast revealed on stage
● On stage tonight

Ravan रावण

Dashanan, the ten-headed king of Lanka

A great scholar, a devotee of Shiva, a gifted veena player and king of a golden city, undone by pride and desire. Ravan carries Sita off to Lanka and will not return her, even when his own brother begs him to. Every Dussehra his effigy burns to remind us that ego destroys even the mighty.

Tonight: Plots with Maareech, takes Sita, mocks Hanuman, banishes Vibhishan, and falls to Ram's arrow.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)The serial's Ravan is commanding, learned and thunderous, never a cartoon. That is why his fall carries weight.

Cast revealed on stage
◐ Off stage

The voice of the Leela

Heard, not seen: the Sutradhar narrates from the side, linking the scenes.

◐ Off stage · narrator's voice

Sutradhar सूत्रधार

The thread-holder, our narrator

Every Ramleela has one: the voice that greets the audience, bridges the years between scenes, and says what the story means. Ramanand Sagar played this part himself, opening and closing episodes with a word to the audience.

Tonight, from off stage: Welcomes you, carries you from Ayodhya to Lanka between scenes, and closes the Leela.

In Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan (1987)Ramanand Sagar's own narration framed the serial, so the story felt told rather than merely shown.

Voice revealed at the show
○ Not in tonight's Leela

Also in the epic

They belong to the story but do not appear on our stage tonight.

  • KaushalyaRam's mother, the senior queen
  • SumitraMother of Lakshman and Shatrughna
  • ShatrughnaYoungest brother, Bharat's shadow
  • MantharaKaikeyi's maid, whose whispers start it all
  • Guru VashishthaRoyal priest and teacher of the Raghu line
  • Rishi VishwamitraTakes the young Ram and Lakshman to guard his yagna
  • JanakKing of Mithila, Sita's father
  • KevatThe boatman who washes Ram's feet before ferrying him across
  • JatayuThe old vulture king who dies trying to save Sita
  • BaliSugriv's mighty elder brother
  • AngadBali's son, Ram's envoy to Lanka
  • JambavanThe wise bear-king who reminds Hanuman of his strength
  • Nal & NeelEngineers of the Ram Setu across the sea
  • MandodariRavan's queen, who begs him to return Sita
  • KumbhkaranRavan's giant brother who sleeps six months at a time
  • Meghnad (Indrajit)Ravan's son, conqueror of Indra