DIWALI STORY: THE JOURNEY OF RAM Sets Cast for OVO Arena Wembley
Aarya Singh, Pavan Maru and Robin Ravi join the professional company alongside roughly 100 community performers.
he cast has been announced for DIWALI STORY: THE JOURNEY OF RAM – A MUSICAL, the large-scale retelling of the Ramayana coming to OVO Arena Wembley for one night only on Sunday, September 27, 2026.
Kiran Kaanan will star as Ram opposite Bhavithra Gananathan as Sita, with Aarya Singh as Lakshman, Pavan Maru as Dasharath and Hanuman, and Robin Ravi as Raavan.
The professional company will perform alongside approximately 100 community actors and dancers in a production combining established performers, emerging artists, and members of communities for whom the Ramayana and Diwali remain part of a living cultural tradition.
Presented by Sanatan Events Ltd in partnership with The Palan Foundation and Golden Tours, the production builds on the sold-out 2025 Royal Albert Hall presentation but has been substantially reimagined for Wembley with new writing, music, choreography, and an expanded company.
Producer Nitin Palan MBE said: “From the beginning, I wanted Diwali Story to do two things at the same time: give audiences the quality of a professional arena production, while creating a stage on which our wider community can genuinely participate.”
He added, “Wembley isn't simply that production moved into a bigger building. The show has been substantially reimagined for an arena with new theatrical vision with new writing, new music, new choreography and a much larger company.”
About DIWALI STORY: THE JOURNEY OF RAM
DIWALI STORY begins in a contemporary British family home before transporting audiences into the world of the Ramayana.
As teenager Luv prepares for Diwali, he believes he already understands the story: Ram defeats Raavan, good defeats evil, and the tale ends there. His grandparents reveal a story that is far richer.
Around them, the Ramayana unfolds through princes and warriors, gods and demons, family, friendship, love, exile, sacrifice, and impossible choices. At the center of the production is a question: what do you do when the right thing is also the hardest thing?
Director and co-writer Sâmir Bhamra said the scale of the arena production is being balanced with a focus on the humanity of its characters.
“I want the child sitting at the back of Wembley Arena to feel as connected to Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman as the family sitting in the front row,” Bhamra said. “That means finding the human beings inside the epic.”
Principal Cast
Kiran Kaanan – Ram
Kaanan trained in Musical Theatre at the Guildford School of Acting. His television credits include Alice and Steve for Disney+ and Clerkenwell Films. His theatre credits include Timmy in the UK tour of Frankie Goes to Bollywood, Ensemble and understudy Prince Kavi, Babloo, Lovely and Bubbly in Surinderella, and Edith and understudy Ruth in the all-male The Pirates of Penzance at Wilton's Music Hall and on tour.
Bhavithra Gananathan – Sita
Gananathan is an actor, writer, and classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer making her professional acting debut as Sita. She is currently training at Collective Acting Studio and is also a member of the National Youth Theatre Company. In 2024, she received the National Iris Breuer Writing Award for a piece exploring girls' right to education.
Aarya Singh – Lakshman
Singh is an Indo-Canadian actor and trained dancer and a recent MA Acting graduate of the Guildford School of Acting, where he received the Max Adrian Award for Outstanding Merit. His screen credits include Warner Bros. Studios' In the Dark Season 4 and UPtv's Christmas on the Slopes.
Pavan Maru – Dasharath / Hanuman
Maru graduated from Bird College in 2018 and most recently appeared as Daniel Edwards in The Mantrap at Theatre Royal Windsor and Eugene Marchbanks in the national tour of Candida. His credits also include Bombay Superstar and multiple productions at Theatre Royal Nottingham.
Robin Ravi – Raavan
Ravi is an actor currently training in London and developing his career across stage and screen. In DIWALI STORY, he takes on the role of Raavan.
Charlotte Barnes – Kaikeyi / Vali
Barnes trained at East 15 Acting School. Her credits include Twelve Hours, Beowulf, Trump L'Oeil, The Bruise You Can't See, Hippolytos, Umrao the Noble Courtesan, and Disney's live-action Aladdin.
Rukmini Sircar – Manthara / Shabari / Mandodari
Sircar is an Indian actor and performance-maker based in London. She played Jayaben Desai in Townsend Theatre's 2025 touring production of We Are the Lions, Mr. Manager and made her West End debut in Bombay Superstar in 2024.
Vanshika Mitter – Shoorpanakha
Mitter trained at Drama Studio London, where her credits included Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Galactic.a/Suffici in Scenes from an Execution, and Viola in Twelfth Night. DIWALI STORY marks her professional debut.
Prem Rai – Bharat / Sugreev
Rai studied Musical Theatre at SLP Leeds and made his West End debut with The King & I at the Dominion Theatre as Dance Captain/Swing. Other credits include Vanara The Legend, Bombay Superstar, Bring On The Bollywood, and Seussical The Musical.
Bhavini Sheth – Baa / Lakshmi
Sheth is a British-Indian actor, voiceover artist, dancer, choreographer, and writer. Her screen credits include BBC One's Hotel Babylon, Sky Atlantic's Guerrilla, Marvel Studios' Eternals, and Bell Bottom. She also joins the production as co-writer of Act Three.
Dhrushil Vekaria – Luv
Vekaria is a British-born Indian actor making his professional debut in the production.
Chinmay Khandwala – Vibhishan / Vashisht
Khandwala trained at Atman Theater School in Ahmedabad, India, and has worked in adaptations of plays by Dario Fo, Nick Payne, Neil Simon, and William Shakespeare.
Abhishek Gadhvi – Shiva / Bapuji
Gadhvi has performed in a number of productions drawing on Indian culture and ancient epics. His credits include Prabhupada – Journey to the West, The Dice Game, and Lord Shiva in The Diwali Story at the Royal Albert Hall.
Further casting will be announced.
New Music for Wembley
The Wembley production will feature new original music and songs by Indian composer Rahul Ranade.
Among the artists collaborating on the new material is playback singer and Padma Shri recipient Kavita Krishnamurthy, whose career spans more than five decades and thousands of recordings across Indian languages.
“For Wembley we are creating new original songs and developing the score specifically for the scale of this production,” Ranade said. “The ambition is for the music to work on an arena scale without losing the emotional detail of the story.”
Community Performers and Schools Programme
Creative Directors and Choreographers Shruti Shah and Rohan Shah of Bollywood Dance School are leading the movement language of the production, working with both the professional company and approximately 100 community dancers and performers.
They are also leading an education and participation program with London schools, introducing children and young people to the movement, music, storytelling, and cultural traditions surrounding the Ramayana and Diwali.
The program will culminate in a special pre-show performance at OVO Arena Wembley featuring participating London schools.
“The Ramayana contains enormous emotional contrasts: love and separation, celebration and grief, devotion, courage, doubt and ultimately homecoming,” Shruti and Rohan Shah said. “Working with over 100 community performers, some who have been entrusted to play key roles, shows The Ramayana has always been carried from one generation to another.”
From the Royal Albert Hall to Wembley
The 2026 production builds on Diwali Story's sold-out presentation at the Royal Albert Hall in 2025.
The original production was created from the Ramayana adaptation by Neelima Penumarthy and Ranuben Mehta-Radia, with Mehta-Radia also directing.
For Wembley, new material by Bhavini Sheth extends the story beyond Ram and Sita's return to Ayodhya, exploring the five days of Diwali and the ways the values of the Ramayana continue through contemporary family traditions.
Using this material, director Sâmir Bhamra has developed a new theatrical framework that places a contemporary British family at the center of the arena production.
Performance Details
DIWALI STORY: THE JOURNEY OF RAM – A MUSICAL
Date: Sunday, September 27, 2026
Venue: OVO Arena Wembley
Doors: 4:30 p.m.
Performance: 6:15 p.m.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours 55 minutes plus interval
Recommended Age: 5+
Tickets are on sale now through the official Diwali Story website.
