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Creating cinematic history

S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali is on its way to becoming one of India’s biggest blockbusters — despite the odds

In Hyderabad, where director S.S. Rajamouli is currently based, there’s not a street in town through which he can pass which doesn’t have a reminder of what he has created. Baahubali, at its heart a Telugu movie and a revenge saga, is now the biggest movie to have ever come out of an Indian studio. It’s also an amazing collection of numbers.

The film scored the highest opening day numbers for any Indian flick, earning Rs 50 crore which beat SRK’s Happy New Year by Rs 5 crore. Queues for tickets exceeded a kilometre in length. It enjoyed the highest opening weekend collection for an Indian film at the US box office and it has been the fastest movie to hit the Rs 100 crore mark — in a mere three days. And last we heard, the great Salman Khan himself was having trouble convincing theatres to spare his Bajrangi Bhaijan a few screens... because some mythological film made by the same crazy guy who had made a movie about a fly (the award-winning Eega), was running up to 30 shows every day.

Rajamouli then, has smashed filmmaking’s Lakshman rekha. Two years ago, he walked into a meeting, asked his crew to forget about everything else, convinced investors to raise over Rs 200 crore, signed on big names from the South and worked non-stop to bring out the mammoth — in a genre many believed doesn’t work anymore.... mythology.

In fact, early analysis from several of the industry’s leading lights maintained he was all set to “do a Coppola”, referring to the famed American director and his epic Vietnam war flick Apocalypse Now (1979)... a movie that underwent so much production hell that it drove both cast and crew to the very brink. But years later, when he was asked why he took so many risks, Coppola had this to say: “I was never afraid of risks. I always had a good philosophy about risks. The only risk is to waste your life, so that when you die, you say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this’. I did everything I wanted to do, and I continue to.”

Rajamouli had indeed done a Coppola, in a good way though. He fought off fear of tremendous failure, fears of all that cash going up in smoke and emerged victorious. And now, on paper, his movie is a box office Godzilla! Rajamouli has not just beaten the odds... he turned them into gold. But before we go any further... the director sat down for a quick Q&A.

Q: Baahubali is set to become one of the biggest hits of all times. Are you surprised by the response, specially from the North where dubbed versions of South Indian films never perform well?

No, because in principle, if your story is based on human emotions rather than sensibilities, it should do well across all regions and languages. But to see it actually happen made me very happy. At the heart of it we had a fantastic story and powerful characters. My producer Shobu Yarlagadda, the technicians and actors sincerely believed this to be a potential classic.

Q: How much of the film’s incandescent beauty did you create on the editing table?

They were created on the writing table (laughs). We spent almost one year in pre- visualising the entire film. It is during this time that all of us had an idea about how the final should look. And we set about achieving it for the next two years.

Q: It is felt Indian cinema can never match Hollywood when it comes to creating a spectacle with CGI. But with a budget that was a fraction of Avatar, Baahubali has changed the perception.

My VFX supervisors Srinivasa Mohan, Pete Draper of Makuta and Sanath of Firefly are highly talented, focused and know every trick of the trade. Studios like Tau films and EFX Hyderabad and numerous other VFX studios in Hyderabad joined the marathon.
My DOP Sendhil is a master at achieving grandeur and his knowledge of VFX is unparalleled. And Sabu Cyrill — I don’t call him a production designer, he is a scientist. Costume designers Rama, Prashanthi and Krishna had a good grasp over colours and textures and practical sense of when to use what. With this crew, it wasn’t too difficult.

Q The heroine, played by Tamnnnaah, is a fascinating blend of warrior and seductress. Why have you shown the viram rasa and the shringar rasa to be mutually exclusive?

Didn’t give it such deep thought. I don’t intellectualise my scenes and characters. Sometimes as the scene starts developing you feel it is working. It is an instinctive thought. When I feel it I don’t look too much into logictics. I go with my heart.

Q Your narrative style, the costumes and the setting suggest a deep affinity to Indian mythological epics. Did you set out to design a modern-day fable with visuals inspired by Hindu gods and their tale of valour?

I relate more to tales of mythology and folklore than contemporary stories. Everything from the story to the emotions to the language to the look, is set in an ancient time. Yes, I am always inspired by Indian stories and it shows in my films.

Q Editing must have been a huge task... The war scene itself is almost half-an-hour long!

There were hundreds of versions of the war edit. We were constantly rearranging to get the best out of hours and hours of footage but I knew every shot by heart. And the length is determined by the tactics and emotions on the battlefield rather than anything else.

Q Which films and filmmakers inspired you for Baahubali?

Shri K.V. Reddy, the legendary Telugu film director who made Maya Bazar is a huge inspiration. Mel Gibson and Ridley Scott are my all-time favourite directors.

Q On casting Prabhas and not a known Bollywood star?

I needed an actor with whom I had a very good rapport. One who had faith in my way of handling the project. Prabhas gave me two years of his dates when I asked him for one year. Without him this project wouldn’t have happened.

Q The best compliment received so far?

From Rajinikant, but it’s too personal to disclose... sorry.

Q And what did your daughter think of Baahubali?

She hated it because it gave me very little time to spend with her over the past two years. But when she finally saw the film in the theatre she said, ‘Nana, it is beyond epic.’

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Rajamouli’s father K.V. Vijayendra Prasad on writing Baahubali as well as Bajrangi Bhaijaan
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Rajamouli’s father K.V. Vijayendra Prasad

Rajamouli’s father, veteran Telugu writer K.V. Vijayendra Prasad has not only written Baahubali, but also Salman Khan’s Id release Bajrangi Bhaijaan. “I’ve written most of my son’s films,” says Prasad, adding, “My main source of inspiration is the Mahabharat. That to me is the ultimate literary triumph… so many characters at war with themselves and with one another. This is what we attempted to show in Baahubali.”

That the film has clicked beyond all expectations is an added bonus. “When I wrote the film, my son had not set out to make a milestone or set a new benchmark. These are qualities that audiences have now discovered in the film. As far as I am concerned, all cinema must be like Baahubali — in terms of providing the highest levels of aesthetic entertainment.” The veteran writer, who wrote his first film Janaki Ramadu in 1988, says he became a writer “out of sheer necessity”.
“When my son became a director and my nephew M.M. Kreem a music composer, the family needed a writer for the picture to be complete. So here I am. Glad that Baahubali has found such wide acceptance.”

On Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prasad says, “It can’t go wrong. The whole idea of spreading peace between India and Pakistan has universal resonance. Then of course there’s Salman Khan.” Prasad makes a belated entry into Bollywood only because nothing substantial was offered to him by Bollywood before Bajrangi Bhaijaan. He also reveals his inspiration for the story. “Some years ago a Pakistani couple came to India for their child’s heart surgery. Back home in Pakistan the surgery was too expensive and they couldn’t afford it. Then, a Chennai hospital stepped in and they offered to do the same surgery for Rs 2-3 lakh. After their child’s successful surgery the couple spoke about how wonderful Indians were to them. That set me thinking. Why can’t we have more such incidents of people connecting over the border?”

Prasad has worked on the idea of cross-border harmony in Bajrangi Bhaijaan by making Salman Khan a goodwill ambassador who enters Pakistan illegally.
“Salman’s presence in Bajrangi Bhaijaan lends an all-new dimension to the film. Nothing can stop the movie from becoming a blockbuster,” he adds. Any recent Hindi films whose writing has impressed Prasad? “Oh, there are many. I am jealous of the writing in PK and Tanu Weds Manu Returns,” he adds.

( Source : deccan chronicle )
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