India, Oct. 23 -- Ticket sales for Nitesh Tiwari's ambitious Ramayana adaptation began on Dussehra, 15 days before the film's release in theatres ahead of Diwali. Giving the film such a long advance booking window seems to be the makers' strategy to increase the buzz around it. And early signs indicate that the strategy seems to be working. Ramayana Part One is showing breakneck pre-sales, crossing one lakh tickets with 13 days to go before release.

In doing so, it has also outpaced the previous big-scale Ramayana adaptation, Adipurush, which had a grand opening before it crash-landed due to extremely negative word of mouth.

Advance bookings for Adipurush began five days before its release, in line with how most big Indian films do so. ...