The film stars Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Satya Dev and follows an archeologist who is investigating the nature of Ram Setu (known as Adam's Bridge in English).

[a] In 2007, Aryan is asked to draft a report for the Supreme Court of India on the natural formation of the Ram Setu to support the government's canal project.

Aryan reports this to Indrakant, who reveals his true intent of demolishing the Ram Setu for economic gain and orders their assassination.

Gabrielle is shot and killed during a confrontation, but Aryan, with Sandra and AP, continues his research, finding evidence linking the Ram Setu to the Ramayana.

After escaping, Aryan successfully presents his findings in court, proving that the Ram Setu is man-made, halting the canal project.

[c] According to a report in The Financial Express, director Abhishek Sharma has been trying to build a plot since 2007 when he became aware of a court case involving Rama Setu.

[12] Co-producer Vikram Malhotra, CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, touted the film as "a story formed on facts, science and historical heritage".

In early March 2021, media reports confirmed that Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha were signed up to play lead roles in the film opposite Kumar.

[23][24] A planned visit to Ram ki Paidi ghats in Ayodhya by the lead actors was cancelled due to a large uncontrolled gathering of people.

[31] This, combined with many crew members testing positive, led the filmmakers to cancel the Mumbai schedule and demolish the set on Madh Island.

[32] Kumar then went to work on his other films, including Raksha Bandhan,[33] Cuttputlli which had a two-month long schedule in London that ended in October,[34] before returning to shooting for Ram Setu.

[50][51] The film competed with the Ajay Devgn-starred Thank God, which was released on the same day, and managed to gain higher share of the box office collections.

[52] During its earlier run, the film, which was released a day after Diwali, took advantage of the festive-season holidays;[53][54] however the collections fell short of expectations of analysts.

[58] Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost called the movie a Hindutva project, noting that the director unapologetically obscured the difference between fact and fiction by having "no credible progression in the script" in Kumar's character's turn from a proud atheist into social media propagandist.

[59] Namrata Joshi reviewing for Screen International wrote that the plot lacks imagination and originality, and the action scenes without thrill.

He wrote that the film is "[p]oorly written, shoddily mounted and badly acted" posing a clueless crew with primitive visual effects ultimately presenting a message to chastize non-believers of Rama.

She wrote, "[t]here is no scope for logic or even basic common sense in a narrative that insists that religious belief must be placed above secular knowledge."

[17] Anuj Kumar of The Hindu criticized the movie stating that it is similar to cultural manifesto of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

He noted that the purpose of the entire cast seemed to only accompany Kumar's character without engaging in the plot, however he praised Pravesh Rana and Satya Dev.

[64] Nairita Mukherjee of India Today rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ram Setu feels highly underwhelming.

"[66] Bollywood Hungama rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and praised its premise to be interesting and climax to be well executed but criticised the plot and VFX.

[68] Pratikshya Mishra of The Quint rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ram Setu disappoints primarily because of how shoddy the script and its treatment is".

[70] Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Barring a few decent chase sequences, Ram Setu has no spark and is way too preachy".

[73] Indian politician Subramanian Swamy stated in August 2022 that he had "through Satya Sabharwal Adv issued Legal Notice to Cine Actor Akshay Kumar (Bhatia) and his 8 others for distorting Ram Setu saga.

"[74] Narottam Mishra, Home Minister of Madhya Pradesh, praised the movie stating that the film would reveal the truth about the Ram Setu bridge and said that it was man-made and built during the period of Ramayana.