Indian film director S S Rajamouli’s epic film ‘Bahubali’ has secured its place in international box office’s top 10 movies within a week of its release with an opening of over $20 million.
The Prabhas-starrer movie released in about 4,200 theatres worldwide and crossed the coveted Rs 100-crore mark in just 2 days in India, taking in $21.3 million during its opening weekend.
1. Most expensive Indian film ever: ‘Bahubali’ is India’s most-expensive movie ever, made at an estimated budget of Rs 250 crore.
Hailed as India’s ‘biggest’ film in its posters, here are a few things to know about Bahubali, which The Hollywood Reporter described as “epic entertainment for those with a taste for swords, sandals and saris.”
2. It showcases VFX prowess: 17 VFX & 800+ technicians involved. Cost of VFX effects was at Rs 85 crore. South Indian films are also known to push the envelope in terms of visual effects, and Bahubali is seen as a game changer, raising the bar for Indian films.
Bahubali’s lead VFX supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan is a three-time national award winner with credits including Tamil director Shankar’s hits I and Enthiran (Robot).
The production was farmed out between 17 VFX companies and other individual artists. Hyderabad-based Makuta VFX and Firefly Visual Effects handled the film’s key sequences. Overseas VFX companies included Los Angeles-based Tau Films (formerly Rhythm and Hues), China’s Dancing Digital and Part 3 and South Korea’s Macro Graph, which worked on a majority of the movie’s war sequences.
3. There has been a debate about when and where the story is set: Given that the film is an epic that Rajamouli has described as a tribute to the Mahabharata, one of two primary Sanskrit texts of ancient India, one of the obvious questions raised by some critics is in which time period the story is set. Like the Mahabharata, Bahubali also revolves around the story of a dynastic struggle.
Yarlagadda tells THR: “It is set in a completely fictitious kingdom and era. But for reference, we looked at the period before the invention of gunpowder or fire power.”
A bit of Googling indicates that the invention of gunpowder is usually attributed to China and that it was probably invented during the Tang Dynasty in the ninth century.
4. Bahubali invents a new language: In what is another first for an Indian film, an original language was invented for Baahubali, like those created for the Dothraki in Game of Thrones or the Elvish language from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Baahubali’s language, Kiliki, was invented by the film’s writer-lyricist Madhan Karky and is said to be made up of about 750 words with its own set of 40 grammar rules.
The language was invented for the film’s terrifying warrior tribe, the Kalakeya.
5. Largest poster ever: The movie has set a Guinness World Record for the largest film poster ever at 50,000 sq ft in size.
10. Wedding put off: Prabhas postponed his marriage for the movie.
11. Even the trailer was a superhit: The Bahubali film Trailer recorded over 4 million views in just 24 hours on YouTube, and 1.5 million views on Facebook.
12. BBC: It is the only Indian film to feature on BBC’s documentary on 100 years of cinema.
13. Highest-earning Indian actor: Prabhas is the first actor from Tollywood to get Rs 20 crore for a movie. That is more than Rajnikanth or Kamal Haasan or Chiranjeevi or Mammoothy.
14. Satellite rights: It is the only Indian movie to have sold its satellite rights for a whopping Rs 25 crore.
15. High rank on IMDB: Bahubali is also the first ever Indian movie to get a 9.4 ranking on IMDB, which is way ahead of the movie ‘300’ that had a ranking of 7.8.
16. Bahubali is expected to get a film museum: Bahubali is scheduled to have a film museum showcasing the film’s sets, weapons, artillery, costumes and props. That would also be a first for India. “We are in discussion with Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, where most of the film was shot, to create a museum and also convert one of the major sets that was erected there into a tourism attraction,” Yarlagadda tells THR. He adds: “This could be ready before or just after the release of Bahubali’s sequel [scheduled for 2016].“
17. The movie puts the spotlight on South India’s film industry: While most attention from people abroad typically goes to Bollywood, or the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai, the South Indian film industry based in Chennai and Hyderabad is quite dynamic and has its fair share of stars. Bahubali’s success has put the spotlight on talent from this region as the film was shot at Hyderabad’s Ramoji Studios. A well-known name in the Telegu language industry, Baahubali director S S Rajamouli has previously delivered award-winning blockbusters in the form of 2009’s Magadheera and 2012’s Eega. Baahubali’s success has also put the spotlight on the film’s cast featuring actors Rana Daggubati and Prabhas, and actresses Anushka Shetty and Tamannaah Bhatia. Elizabeth director Shekhar Kapur, who started out directing acclaimed Bollywood titles such as 1987’s Mr India, praised Bahubali in a tweet. “Film makers from South India are showing far more courage than the North,” he said. “Where are the courageous film makers like @ssrajamouli in Mumbai?”
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