The game changer

Saibal Chatterjee

The whole world seems to be going crazy over Bãhubali 2: The Conclusion. In the days leading up to its much-awaited release, the film had Twitter all aflutter, with inveterate fans of S.S. Rajamouli’s no-holds-barred brand of action movies hyperventilating their thoughts on the upcoming treat. Have we ever seen the kind of massive mass anticipation that the Bãhubali sequel has generated?

With excitement going through the roof, the Telugu-Tamil-Hindi fantasy actioner broke the record set recently by Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal and registered over one million in online ticket sales more than 24 hours ahead of the release. 

Karan Johar, who, with Anil Thadani’s AA Films, has distributed the Hindi version of the epic entertainer, says, “In all the years that I’ve been in the industry, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Neither have we. When a Rajinikanth film is ready for release, the publicity spin doctors pull out the stops. Pretty much the same phenomenon repeats itself when a Salman Khan-starrer is set to hit the multiplexes. But Bãhubali 2: The Conclusion is playing a completely different game. Its brand value stems from the runaway success of the original film, Bãhubali: The Beginning, which set a new benchmark in computer-generated imagery in India. Significantly, all VFX work in the film was executed by local players, a majority of them based in Hyderabad.

“A good story,” says the film’s director, “transcends the boundaries of language. I might not be a great filmmaker, but I am a good storyteller.” With smash hits like Magadheera and Eega behind him, Rajamouli can afford to be both modest about his achievements and supremely confident of his ability to deliver the goods.

Bãhubali is nothing if not a phenomenon. Who would have ever thought that a Telugu-language sword-and-sandals saga would assume the proportions of such a mammoth pan-Indian success story? When the project started out — Rajamouli had nursed the idea for over five years inspired in the main by the Amar Chitra Katha comics that he had devoured as a child — the two parts were meant to cost Rs 250-crore combined.

The success of Bãhubali: The Beginning (the film grossed more than Rs 650 crore) enthused the producers to double the budget of the sequel. Their gamble has paid off — even before its release, Bãhubali 2: The Conclusion had recovered its cost and was well on the way to becoming one of the biggest hits in the history of Indian cinema.

What is it about Bãhubali that has worked Indian movie fans up into such an unstoppable lather? To be absolutely honest, beyond its superficial visual gloss and eye-popping technical wizardry, the film only recycles old ideas and narrative devices, what with the stale tale of good pitted against the evil in a kingdom where everything is possible. It is Rajamouli’s grand imagination and ambition that has transformed an ordinary, low-brow cinematic venture into a potentially game-changing enterprise.

Bollywood’s action stars do not have the kind of physical stature that Prabhas and Rana Daggubati possess. The two southern actors have the height and physique that help them pass themselves off as invincible superheroes of a period gone by. Aided by the dazzling special effects that heighten the effect of their presence, their onscreen exploits have served to take the action genre to another level altogether. What the success of Bãhubali has done is rewrite the rule of the games forever. Cinema may not benefit in the long run, but the way commercial films are produced and consumed in this country will not be the same again. The bar has been raised.