A British officer looks at a starving village and calls the famine nature’s way of keeping the population in check. That one moment, around the one-minute mark of the Ranabaali trailer, tells you more about the film’s anger than any of the battle shots that follow.

The Hindi trailer for Rahul Sankrityan’s period action drama runs close to four minutes, which is long by any standard. The film, starring Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna, arrives in theatres worldwide on October 16, 2026, in the Dussehra window.

Legend first, history second

The trailer does not open with action. It opens with myth. Between 0:18 and 0:28, we hear about the Singhan Mala mountain and the tomb of a saint from 200 years ago. It is an interesting choice. Sankrityan seems to be building a folk-tale frame around a story the makers say is inspired by real events of British rule. The teaser had already pointed towards the devastating famine of 1876–78 in the Madras Presidency, so the mythic opening reads like a way to give a real tragedy the weight of a legend.

The real villain is the system

From 0:53 to 1:16, the trailer gets specific about what it is angry at. Locals are pushed into forced labour, and the famine that follows is brushed off by the colonial rulers as a population-control mechanism. This stretch works better than the usual “evil Englishman” setup because the cruelty here is cold and administrative, not just loud. Arnold Vosloo, best known to Indian audiences from The Mummy films, plays Sir Theodore Hector, and the trailer smartly holds back on overexposing him.

Vijay Deverakonda’s turn

Ranabaali himself takes centre stage from 1:31 to 1:51, and again in the long final stretch from 2:51 to 3:26, where he vows to protect his land and his lineage. This is the biggest physical and tonal shift we have seen from Deverakonda. The man who became a household name with Geetha Govindam and Arjun Reddy is now playing a resistance figure in a story about hunger and survival. Whether he can carry that weight for a full film is the real question, but the trailer gives him enough intense beats to make a case.

Rashmika Mandanna plays Jayamma, his wife. Her presence in the trailer is limited, which is fine for a cut so clearly focused on the conflict. This is the couple’s third film together after Geetha Govindam and Dear Comrade.

What looks promising, what raises doubts

The famine angle is the strongest card here. Few mainstream Indian films have touched this chapter, and if the screenplay keeps the focus on people rather than just spectacle, Ranabaali could be more than another period actioner. Ajay-Atul, who scored Agneepath and Tanhaji, are a natural fit for this kind of rousing, rooted material.

The doubts are equally clear. A nearly four-minute trailer risks showing too much, and the “rebel rises against the Raj” template has been done many times since RRR. The makers have also said the film is not a biopic but a reconstruction from multiple accounts, so it will have to balance myth, history and mass moments carefully.

Expectations

Ranabaali’s trailer sells anger and scale with some genuine thought behind it. If the film keeps the famine at its heart and not just in its marketing, it could be one of the more meaningful Dussehra releases this year.

VERDICT: A trailer with a clear point of view. The famine-and-forced-labour setup gives Ranabaali real stakes, and Vijay Deverakonda looks committed. The long runtime and a familiar anti-colonial template are the only worries.

Trailer Rating: 3.5/5