Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt are spending Diwali 2026 in the middle of a family double celebration, with his epic Ramayana: Part 1 in cinemas and their daughter Raha’s fourth birthday falling in the same week. The festival, which falls today, 8 November, caps a run of days in which the couple’s private family life and Kapoor’s biggest screen role have been impossible to separate.
Alia Bhatt marked the film’s release with a heartfelt note on Instagram, according to the Bombay Times on 5 November, sharing two behind-the-scenes pictures of Kapoor with Raha taken on the Ramayana set. The outlet reported that Bhatt’s post arrived just after Part 1 reached theatres on 5 November, and just ahead of Raha turning four on 6 November. Bhatt attended the film’s Mumbai premiere earlier in the week alongside her mother-in-law Neetu Kapoor, according to The Hollywood Reporter India, wearing a teal linen saree against a cosmic-themed backdrop.
Raha, the film’s youngest fan
Raha has been part of the Ramayana story far longer than most audiences realise. Kapoor told the BBC, as reported by Hauterrfly on 5 November, that his daughter had visited the set many times and had even shot a few scenes with his co-stars Sai Pallavi and Ravie Dubey. He described Raha as the “diya” of his life, and said the Diwali celebrations would be particularly special because she was celebrating her fourth birthday this year.
Kapoor also revealed that Ramayana was Raha’s first trip to the cinema, according to the same report, and that he was looking forward to watching the film with her in theatres too. The family angle has been a constant thread in the film’s promotion: on the Diwali special episodes of Kaun Banega Crorepati, recorded with Amitabh Bachchan, Kapoor said his marriage to Bhatt was founded on friendship, and shared that the family’s mornings have begun with Bachchan’s rendition of the Hanuman Chalisa every day since Raha was born.
A quiet Diwali at home
For all the scale of Ramayana — directed by Nitesh Tiwari, with Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana — the Kapoors’ own Diwali has traditionally been a low-key affair. Reporting on the family’s festive plans has described a home celebration built around Lakshmi Puja, marigold flowers and earthen diyas, with Raha now old enough to join in making rangoli.
This year that picture carries extra meaning: a film about the return of Rama, released for Diwali, watched by a four-year-old girl seeing her father as Lord Rama on the big screen for the first time. Part 2 of the epic is scheduled for Diwali 2027, so the family will be telling this story for a while yet.
