bahubali
Baahubali: The Beginning
Baahubali The Beginning Movie Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster in Telugu
Directed by
S. S. Rajamouli
Produced by
Shobu Yarlagadda
Prasad Devineni
Written by
K. V. Vijayendra Prasad
Screenplay by
K. V. Vijayendra Prasad
S. S. Rajamouli
Story by
K. V. Vijayendra Prasad
Starring
Prabhas
Rana Daggubati
Tamannaah
Anushka Shetty
Ramya Krishna
Sathyaraj
Nassar
Music by
M. M. Keeravani
Cinematography
K. K. Senthil Kumar
Edited by
Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Production
company
Arka Media Works
Distributed by
Telugu:
Arka Media Works
Hindi:
Dharma Productions
Tamil:
Studio Green
Sri Thenandal Films
UV Creations
Malayalam:
Global United Media
Release date
10 July 2015
Running time
158 minutes[1] (Telugu)
159 minutes[2] (Tamil)
Country
India
Language
Telugu
Tamil
Budget
₹180 crore[3]
Box office
est. ₹650 crore[4]
The film was conceived by Rajamouli's father K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who randomly told him a story about Sivagami, a woman who carries a baby in her hand while crossing a river, and a few years later about Kattappa, which intrigued Rajamouli. His fascination with mythology and the tales of the Amar Chitra Katha comics further fuelled his interest in the story. However, it took the writers three months to complete the final draft. The soundtrack and background score were composed by M. M. Keeravani while the cinematography, production design, and VFX were handled by K. K. Senthil Kumar, Sabu Cyril and V. Srinivas Mohan respectively.
The film was made on a budget of ₹180 crore (US$25 million), making it the most expensive Indian film at its time of release. The film opened worldwide on 10 July 2015 along with the dubbed versions in Hindi and Malayalam, garnering critical acclaim and record-breaking box office success. With a worldwide box office gross of ₹600 crore (US$84 million), it became the highest-grossing film in India, third highest-grossing Indian film worldwide, and highest-grossing South Indian film, at the time of its release. Its Hindi dubbed version also broke several records by becoming the highest-grossing dubbed film in India. Both budget and box office records have since been surpassed by Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, the second highest grossing Indian film of all time.
It received several accolades. It won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects and Best Feature Film, becoming the first Telugu film to win the award. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards South, the Telugu version won five awards from ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Rajamouli and Best Supporting Actress for Ramya Krishna respectively. Baahubali: The Beginning became the first Indian film to be nominated for Saturn Awards, receiving five nominations at the 42nd ceremony, including Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actress.
Plot
Near the ancient Indian kingdom of Mahishmati, an injured woman is seen exiting a cave down by a mountain waterfall carrying an infant. She kills two soldiers pursuing and attempts to cross a raging river, but slips and is washed away in the current. Before drowning, she holds the baby aloft with her hand and prays to Lord Shiva, demanding that the baby - Mahendra Baahubali, must live. The baby is saved by the people of the local Amburi tribe, who reside near the river and worship Lord Shiva. Despite the villagers' pleas to take the baby back up the mountain to where he came from, the wife of the tribe's chieftain, Sanga, decides to adopt him, in order to protect him from harm's way. She names the baby as Shivudu (Shivu).
Shivu grows up to be an ambitious and mischeivious child, obsessed with the goal of ascending the mountain, curious to explore what is the top. Despite Sanga's continuous pleas, he constantly tries and fails repeatedly, albeit improving at each attempt. At the young age of 25, he is shown to possess superhuman strength when he lifts a Lingam of Shiva and placing it at the foot of the mountain. He later finds a mask that has apparently fallen from the top of the mountain. Realizing it may possess feminine features, he is motivated to scale the mountain and succeeds, albeit with difficulty. At the top, he witnesses a woman named Avantika slaying Mahishmati soldiers. He discovers that she is a warrior from a local resistance tribe, dedicated with the aim of overthrowing the tyrannical king of Mahishmati, Lord Bhallaladeva (Bhalvalathevan) and rescuing an important captive - Princess Devasena, who happens to be the sister of the resistance's chief, Jaya Varma. Shivu is instantly smitten with Avantika and secretly follows her, even managing to draw a tattoo on her hand (while she is sleeping). Avantika is later tasked with rescuing Devasena. She discovers about Shivu and attacks him, but Shivu overpowers her and returns her mask to her. Realizing that he had scaled the mountain just for her, she reciprocates his feelings.
The pair are later attacked by more soldiers from Mahishmati. Overpowering them, Shivu pledges to rescue Devasena and departs. He secretly enters Mahishmati on Bhalladeva's birthday and discreetly assists in erecting a gigantic statue of Bhalla. In the process, he is apparently identified by a worker, who along with the other workers, chant the name 'Baahubali', much to Shivu's confusion and Bhalla's embarrassment. Shivu later infiltrates the royal palace disguised as a soldier and causes a commotion, allowing Bhalla and his guards to be distracted long enough for him to rescue Devasena. Bhalla dispatches Bhadra, his adoptive son and Kattappa, his loyal slave to recapture Devasena. They manage to do so, but Shivu manages to overpower them and beheads Bhadra, exactly at the moment when Sanga, the Amburis, Avantika and her compatriots arrive. Infuriated, Kattappa lungs at Shivu, but stops short of attacking him upon catching a glimpse of his face. He falls into submission at Shivu's feet, proclaiming him as 'Baahubali'.
The next morning, a now friendly Kattappa explains to Shivu about his true origins. Shivu is actually Mahendra Baahubali, the son of a famous warrior prince of Mahishmati - Amarendra Baahubali. Kattapa then narrates the past - Amarendra was born as an orphan; his father, King Vikramadeva had died before he was born and his mother had died giving birth to him. Lord Bijjaladeva, Vikramadeva's brother and the next-in-line in the Mahishmati royal family, was denied the throne, due to his cunning and deranged nature. Bijjaladeva's wife, Lord Sivagami, assumed power as an acting monarch, with the intention of raising both Bhalla (who happenned to be her son) and Amarendra, in an equal manner, in order to appropriately select the next heir to the throne of Mahishmati. Bhalla and Amarendra are both raised equally and trained rigorously in the arts of warfare, mathematics, administration, logic and numerous other subjects. Bijjaladeva, keen on making his son the next king, encourages Bhalla to do what ever it takes to ascend the throne; as a result Bhalla treats his subjects with cruelty and unmindfulness. Amarendra, on the other hand, grows up to be more mature and gains popularity in the kingdom.
A traitor in the kingdom named Sakithan turns out to be a spy for the malicious Kalakeya tribe, who are known to be savages and destroyers of kingdoms. Their chief Inkoshi declares war due to past conflict with Mahishmati, and the royals respond strategically. Sivagami decides that whoever kills Inkoshi would be the new worthy king, so they assign the princes troops. Bijjaladeva secretly makes sure Bhalla has more weapons and men. Baahubali manages to destroy more Kalakeya troops in the coming battle as well as motivating his soldiers and saving hostage subjects. He subdues Inkoshi and Bhalla kills him, but for his valour and concern for the people of his kingdom, Sivagami wishes to crown him king.
In the present day, Shivu's parents wish to meet Amarendra, being impressed upon hearing his story. A dejected Kattappa reveals that Amarendra is dead. Upon being questioned by Shivu of his father's death, Kattappa further reveals that Amarendra was murdered, by none other than himself, before the screen cuts to black.
Cast
I was about 7 years old when I started reading comics called Amar Chitra Katha that are published in India. They're not about a superhero, but they encompass all the stories of India, the folklore, the mythology, everything. But most of these stories are about Indian historical figures. I was fascinated by the forts, the battles, the kings, I'm only used to read those stories but I kept telling those stories to my friends in my own way.
— Rajamouli, on the inspiration for making Baahubali.[5]
Main article: List of Baahubali characters
Credited
The following is the credited cast:[6]
Prabhas as Amarendra Baahubali (father) and Mahendra Baahubali "Sivudu" (Telugu) / "Sivu" (Tamil) (son) (dual role)
Rana Daggubati as Bhallaladeva (Telugu) / Palvaalthevan (Tamil)
Anushka Shetty as Devasena (Telugu) / Devasenai (Tamil), Mahendra Baahubali's biological mother
Tamannaah as Avanthika
Ramya Krishnan as Sivagami
Sathyaraj as Kattappa
Nassar as Bijjaladeva (Telugu) / Pingalathevan (Tamil)
Others
Rohini as Sanga[7]
Meka Ramakrishna as leader of the rebel group[8]
Tanikella Bharani as Swamiji[9]
Adivi Sesh as Bhadrudu (Telugu) / Bhadra (Tamil)[10]
Prabhakar as the Inkoshi, King of Kalkeyas[11]
Sudeep as Aslam Khan[12]
Charandeep as Inkoshi's brother
Madhu Sneha Upadhyay as dancer in blue blouse in song "Manohari"
Nora Fatehi as dancer in green blouse in song "Manohari"[13]
Scarlett Mellish Wilson as dancer in orange blouse in song "Manohari"[14]
S. S. Rajamouli as the spirit seller before the song Manohari
Production
Characters in the film
Baahubali: The Beginning was produced in Tollywood,[15] the centre of Telugu language films in India and was filmed in both Telugu and Tamil languages simultaneously.[16] As of July 2015, the film series was considered the most expensive in India.[17]
Development
Director S. S. Rajamouli revealed that Baahubali is inspired by the epic Mahabharata.[18] K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, the storywriter of Baahubali: The Beginning had revealed that he was inspired by the hero introduction sequence of the 1967 Kannnada film, Immadi Pulikeshi, based on the life of the Chalukya king, Pulakeshin II[19] and hence incorporated a similar sequence. The director first choice was Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha and Tamannah. He had further revealed that the core storyline – where one brother is not given the throne because of his disability, leading to animosity between blood relatives – was also partly inspired by this movie.[20] In February 2011, S. S. Rajamouli announced that Prabhas would star in his upcoming movie.[21] In January 2013, he announced that the working title was Baahubali. Actual film production started at Rock Gardens in Kurnool on 6 July 2013. The waterfall scenes were shot at Athirappilly Falls in Kerala, huge sets for the Mahishmati kingdom were constructed at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, and the snow episodes in the film were shot in Bulgaria. The screen writer, K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who wrote stories for most of Rajamouli's films, once again penned the story for Baahubali. The film boasts of one year pre-production work wherein 15,000 storyboard sketches for the film were created—the highest for any Indian Film as of this date. More than 90 percent of the film had visually enhanced shots and, according to the producer, more than 600 VFX artists worked for the film from 18 facilities around the world led by Makuta VFX and Firefly in Hyderabad, Prasad Studios in Hyderabad and Chennai, Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad, Tau Films, and Dancing Digital Animation and Macrograph in South Korea. Makuta VFX which had prior experience of working with S.S.Rajamouli was chosen as principal visual effects studio. The cinematography of the movie was done by KK Senthil Kumar for 380 days using Arri Alexa XT camera with Master Prime lens. This marked Rajamouli's first film using digital imagery.[citation needed]
Most of the film was shot in ArriRaw format in 4:3 aspect ratio while ArriRaw 16.9 was used for slow motion shots at 120 fps. Open Gate format, which can use the full 3.4K sensor in the camera to produce frames larger than the standard ArriRaw format, was tapped in to get the maximum image quality in VFX shots.[22] Production designer Sabu Cyril created 10,000 different kinds of weaponry including swords, helmets and armour required for the soldiers. To make the swords lightweight, carbon-fibre was used instead of steel.[23] 3D printing technology was used to create the head of the 100-foot Bhallaladeva statue in the movie.[24] Flexi foam was used to make lightweight armour with the look of leather.[24] V. Srinivas Mohan was chosen as visual effects supervisor, and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao was the editor. P. M. Satheesh was the sound designer and Peter Hein was responsible for the action sequences. The costume designers were Rama Rajamouli and Prasanthi Tipirneni. The line producer was M. M. Srivalli.[25]
Visual effects
National Award winner V. Srinivas Mohan was roped in as Visual effects supervisor for Baahubali. Makuta VFX which is based out of Hyderabad was chosen as principal visual effects studio and was responsible for more than 50% of the computer-generated imagery in the film.[26][better source needed] The majority of work done by Makuta involved bringing the 1500 foot waterfall to life, creating mountains and landscapes including the kingdom of Mahishmati, with its massive temples and courtyards.[27] Creating the waterfall took nearly two years as Makuta dealt with complexity in fluid dynamics and simulations. Manuka claimed each frame of the waterfall sequence was treated as creating a new set and employed a different set of methodology.[26][better source needed]
Firefly Creative Studio of Hyderabad worked primarily on the avalanche and the war sequences, which account for nearly 25 minutes of the film. Firefly Creative was also involved in creating underwater VFX shots and in establishing backstories for Kalakeya characters. Tau Films was responsible for creating the CGI bison, while Prasad EFX from Hyderabad was responsible for some shots in pre and post battle episodes involving digital multiplication. Prasad also created a 3D image of Kattappa and mapped his head onto a duplicate actor in one of the scenes.
Srushti VFX from Hyderabad was involved in digitally creating some of the shots in the war sequence along with Firefly Studios. Annapurna Studios from Hyderabad was chosen as digital intermediate partner for the film which is responsible for generating the digital feed with the best colour and audio for editing. For the first time in Indian movies, Academy Color Encoding System workflows were implemented along with Infinitely Scalable Information Storage keeping in mind the scale of digitally enhanced shots in the film. Arka Media Works, production company of Baahubali, teamed up with AMD to use the state of the art FirePro GPUs W9100 and W8100 during post production.
In an interview with Quartz, the co-founder of Makuta VFX stated, "Most of Baahubali was developed in Hyderabad, home to Tollywood, and used local talent. It was principally a homegrown feature produced by homegrown talent.
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