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Bahubali: The making of an epic

A local cinema in Dubai.
A few eager-beavers, just a handful, are waiting for the first show of Bahubali: The Beginning. The crowd is thinner than what the theatre welcomes for, let us say, a Sonakshi Sinha or a Rajkummar Rao film.
After all, why should Bollywood lovers go for a film starring 'unknown' Telugu actors? And who is this Rajamouli? Pray, why is Karan Johar putting his money into this film and tweeting about it?
A good half hour later, the theatre disperses the motley crowd because 'the reel hasn't come.'
What, asks the now-impatient audience? The theatre manager just opens his palms and feigns helplessness.
Over then to a cineplex, also in Dubai.
Oh yes, the 'reel has come' and the film will start as scheduled.
Inside, the theatre is rather empty - a few heads bobbing somewhere in the darkness.
158 minutes later, as the end-titles faded, there was an isolated clap in the movie hall. It was taken up by the others - and for a good two to three minutes, the audience gave a standing ovation.
A classic, 'Veni, vidi, vici' moment! Bahubali and Rajamouli had conquered hearts and minds.
By then, social media was on fire - one Telugu movie, dubbed into other languages, was rewriting the history of Indian cinema.
For the first time, Bollywood was challenged by a Telugu film on its own terms. None of the 'remake, shemake' drama.
To create a pan-Indian sensibility and acceptance with cinema is not an easy task. It took years before Bollywood films could be accepted down south - apart from the few exceptions such as Sholay, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Maine Pyar Kiya, to name a few.
The arrival of multiplexes changed Bollywood history - as did the new generation of young people who were happy to accept Hindi films for their slick production values and larger canvas.
But what Rajamouli did was without parallel: He created an Indian cinema - one that anyone could relate to, anywhere in India or for that matter the world, without need for subtitles.
Trust me, Bahubali can be enjoyed even without dialogues - and that is the magic of cinema - the power of visuals to take you directly into the core of the film.
Kamal Haasan has attempted the same before with films such as Pushpak and Apoorva Sahodarangal (Appu Raja, in Hindi) but the scale and grandeur of Bahubali stands apart.  
The acceptance of the film also owes to its storyline by K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, Rajamouli's father, who has also authored Bajrangi Bhaijaan, as well as other big-budget films by Rajamouli.
So here, take it from the Telugu industry, from Prabhas, Rana Daggubati and of course, the captain of the ship, SS Rajamouli, the first neo-classical Indian film.
Only Rajinikanth had ignited such magic before, but then, his films were ripped by the Bollywood critics, who would typically view them through the prism of 'Madrasi' prejudices. Indeed, there are critics who wrote Rajni films are for 'unintentional hilarity.'
But the rules changed with Bahubali. Its production values, directorial flourish and the way it transformed actors into performers awed critics except a self-proclaimed box office expert from the UAE, 'specialising' in 'censor premieres' to give 'expert box office verdicts,' who had the cheekiness to sneer at its screenplay.
As an envelope-pushing film, Bahubali set a real industry benchmark on how big budget extravaganzas can be made - with resources drawn largely from India itself. Today, people do not compare 'special effects' with Hollywood films - the best home-grown reference is out there in Rajamouli's spectacle.
As City Times, then reviewed, "Rajamouli just follows the dictum that a visual is worth over a thousand words. And what spectacular cinematography and CGIs - never before might Indian cinema have seen such technical perfection in every frame."
For a director that had made a house-fly - no kidding - the hero of his film Eega, Rajamouli knows exactly what he wants - and he is utterly unassuming.
That was how he was in Dubai on Tuesday, as he arrived with his cast for the promotion of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion.
With audiences hooked on to cliffhanger in the original - where Kattappa (Sathyaraj) stabs Amarendra Bahubali (Prabhas) in the back - the curiosity of why he did so, has been uppermost in all minds. Why should the man who mentored Bahubali and cared for his mother do such a heinous crime?
Well, Rajamouli had a simple answer: "Because I asked him to do it."
It might have been innocuous and meant to raise some mirth but Rajamouli had conveyed what Bahubali is really all about: It is about how directors with vision can change cinema through passion projects that cast a spell on viewers.
Do not miss the conclusion of Bahubali as the film releases today at theatres in the UAE.
In a dashing new avatar
Actor Prabhas can never leave Bahubali behind; after all, it is the film that earned him recognition across India and wherever Indians live.
But when he arrived in Dubai for the promotion of Bahubali: The Conclusion, he had albeit in external looks, bid good-bye to Amarendra Bahubali. The long curls of 'Amarendra' are gone - with Prabhas admitting earlier that he was quite tired of it- and he is now working out to shed the extra muscles he gained for the epic. According to Rajamouli, the actor had added in 20kg to transform into Amarendra Bahubali.
He is moving to his next venture, directed by Sujeeth, titled Saaho, and reports have it that Prabhas will play a cop with a crew-cut. The film will be a trilingual - in Hindi and Tamil. The film's trailer will be released with Bahubali: The Conclusion.
Prabhas, however, is not an overnight wonder, as many assume outside the Telugu industry. His association with director Rajamouli too goes back to 2005, when he acted in Chatrapathi - with some nail-biting stunt sequences, which you can watch now on YouTube.
Unassuming seems to be characteristic of south Indian heroes - as it is with Prabhas, who charmed his way, as if oblivious to the fact that at this moment in time, he is the most talked about Indian actor.
With just 20 films in a career spanning 15 years (of which over three were set aside only for Bahubali: The Beginning), Prabhas sure knows what he wants. A great fan of Robert De Niro, Prabhas has earlier done a cameo in Ajay Devgan's Action Jackson, which was his only outing in Bollywood.
Now with Bahubali, he needs no further calling card. The name says it all.