Rajamouli has directed ‘Baahubali’, India’s most expensive Indian movie till date, and has been receiving accolades nationally for pulling-off such as huge feat. Bollywood biggies like Salman Khan & Karan Johar praised the film. But more importantly, studios in the south now have started believing that a truly all-India blockbuster is possible to come from outside of Bollywood.
Mani Ratnam’s ‘Roja’, Shankar’s Endhiran (Robot) did extremely well nationally, and now with Baahubali, directors from the Tamil & Telugu film industries believe that if they’ve a universal theme and tell a good story in a fascinating way, its chances of working everywhere is very high. Until now, they hadn’t gone to the Hindi audience with a good story. But with the success (and experience) of Bahubali, films from the South should be able to exploit the national market better.
Most Expensive Film
For those who have not seen the Hollywood blockbuster ‘300’, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see what an Indian director has accomplished with this movie that has caught the fancy of the Indian cinema-watcher. Even those who have seen the Hollywood blockbuster will surely appreciate director Rajamouli’s efforts with Bahubali (of course there are scenes where it would remind you of ‘300’ or ‘Troy’, and a typical Indian film song with the heroine shows her midriff, some say the story is about ‘Karna’, but despite those cliches, Bahubali is still a great watch).
Besides, this is the most expensive Indian movie, ever made (going to be released in two parts…Baahubali: The Conclusion follows next year). The producers spent close to around $30 million (around 160-180 crore rupees), which probably is not too big when compared to Hollywood standards, but definitely a big leap in production cost, compared to what Indian films have been spending on producing their films.
However, the more important thing is that ‘Bahubali’ seem to offer a fantastic value for your money (I’m sure the same thing/elaborate fight sequences would have cost twice or even thrice had it been done by an American studio).
The final battle scene is almost 45 minutes long, and seeing the scale of the battlefield, you’ll realize why Rajamouli’s Bahubali is India’s most expensive film.
Did You Know?
Bahubali took almost over 500 days to shoot, with one battle sequence featuring 2,000 junior artistes. It took one year of pre-production. The team dealt with 17 VFX studios in India, China and South Korea.
Director: SS Rajamouli. With: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia. 159 mins.
Black-Marketeers Have a Field-Day
There’s been a mad rush for the tickets, ever since the movie has released. In the first couple of days, black-marketeers of the movie’s tickets were asking for outrageous amounts (tickets were being offered for Rs.2000-Rs.3000 and some were even offering tickets for as high as ten thousand rupees). Obviously, most of these fans wanted to watch the movie first-day/first-show.
Fans in Andhra event vented their ire on theatres by damaging furniture and glass panes as limited tickets were available over the counter, for most of the shows, on the first few days. A public interest litigation (PIL) was also filed in the Hyderabad High Court by one cinema-enthusiast. It said theatre managements in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were openly conniving with black-marketers to sell Bahubali tickets at very high sums.
Could be Remade in Hollywood
With the massive success of Baahubali, there are reports (nothing has been confirmed yet) that suggest that the magnum opus could be remade in Hollywood.
Few American studios have shown interest in buying the rights of the movie to make its Hollywood remake. Director Rajamouli is thrilled with the offer, but the details are still being chalked out and the makers are yet to seal the deal.
Baahubali Scores Much Higher than ‘300’ on IMDB
This one is going to cheer most Indians. ‘Baahubali’ has now overtaken the Hollywood movie ‘300’, in terms of ratings, on IMDB (the popular movie review site). The Hollywood blockbuster ‘300’, with which Baahubali is constantly being compared, has a rating of 7.8 on IMDB, whereas Baahubali has received 9.5 out of 10 on IMDB.
