Action!
Cut it.
Cut, cut.
Rajamouli sir said, "We're going on set tomorrow."
My first challenge was performing with Ramya Krishnan ma'am.
-She's such an amazing-- -Oh, that was your first day of shooting?
My shoot.
She's such an amazing artist.
-And I was so scared. -It was a challenge.
But the moment I stepped onto the set, my mind went completely blank.
-That leg you see behind the throne… -Yeah.
-It was huge. -It was huge.
And until that morning, Ramya Krishnan ma'am had been my biggest fear.
I kept wondering how I was going to match her performance
-and all that. -Yeah.
But the moment I saw the set,
-I had a completely different problem. -Yeah.
-I was just stunned. I mean, what to do? -Yeah.
The set was only partially built when we filmed those scenes.
But when I saw it in the theater, I was blown away by the scale of it.
It was an experience I can't really put into words.
The set we shot on
and what ended up on screen felt like two completely different worlds.
If you look at this stone,
it's actually made of fiber that's designed to look real.
I'm trying to make it feel as authentic as possible.
So, those things were very unique.
I've done a lot of films, but I'd never seen a set like this before,
where we cared about how something actually felt, not just how it looked.
Sabu sir made sure there was work done wherever we set foot.
He would place some kind of foam where we had to walk and land.
One! Go!
Nice!
The usual set has lights, cranes, tracks, and trolleys.
But this set had bulldozers and big cranes moving boulders.
The atmosphere looked like we were building a dam.
The costumes took up almost quarter of a kilometer.
The Kalakeya troop's costumes would go on for miles.
We had 20-30 people dedicated to dressing them up.
The Kalakeya costumes were painted black, so were they.
Around 100 people were working on the costumes.
Baahubali was like the biggest factory in every department.
Having seen filmmakers who make a big deal out of nothing,
it's shocking to see the Baahubali team being humble as ever,
even after making the biggest film in India.
The way Shobu sir was spending money, Prabhas and I used to joke,
"Look at him, sir…
sitting there relaxed,
without a bit of tension like it's someone else's shoot."
The scale of the production was so much…
That time we--
I still remember there was this AD from Bombay.
He was there for a month or two, and he was not able to handle it.
So we had to bring in a typical co-director.
The scheduling was becoming too complex for anyone to deal with.
Why is this looking like a mess?
It is so confusing, sir.
Then we did a script breakdown and tried a scheduling software.
Even that was too new and people were not comfortable working with it.
So finally, I became the first AD for Rajamouli.
August second half is assigned for the introduction
of Baahubali's and Bhallaladeva's introductions.
We would need all the artists for the same for 2 days.
For the first time, a Producer wasn't just putting in the money…
or barely checking on us, having a coffee or tea on the set.
He equally shed his blood and sweat for this film.
Valli and Karthikeya and the production team would take over from there.
It was their job to execute the plan.
Every day was a battle on the sets of Baahubali. A battle against time.
So much was being spent per day with such a big crew and junior artists.
Each second was very valuable.
Starting at 5:30 AM, everyone was always on the run.
Let's go, let's go!
It was like a mini battle that was going on every day.
Action!
Come on!
-Keep going! -Don't stop there.
One of the important sequences which was…
very challenging to shoot was the waterfall sequence.
We shot it in multiple locations.
We shot at a real waterfall in Atharapalli,
and also had small sets erected in Ramoji Film City.
That was the most difficult scene for me.
Valli and Rama would play out the scene beforehand to make sure it was safe.
It was a dicey situation, despite taking all safety measures.
They would let me do the scene only after they've assessed the risk.
I haven't seen such concern on any other set.
Three, two, one!
Charge!
I think the most unique song in my career would always be Dheevara.
In fact, the introduction shot in which the butterflies fly away…
took us almost 2 days to nail it to perfection.
One, two, three!
Cut!
Cut it!
Senthil, Sabu Cyril, and Keeravani didn't want to give their personal best.
They wanted to give what the film wants.
Baahubali is a war.
It's not just a film about war.
The film itself was a war.
Let's establish the war prep along with this.
-Got it. -It's going to take so much time.
It was a war. The shoot was a war.
Designing was a war.
Detailing was a war.
Building the chariot was a war.
It was war time for the people on sets, not just the audience to watch.
The war was so tiring,
It was shot in April or May.
We couldn't stop the shoot as the stakes were high.
The entire army was dressed heavily and painted black.
Just getting onto the war field and running amidst all the dust.
Just the scale of shooting was so overwhelming.
And, action!
Cut!
I feel that what they achieved as a team,
what Rajamouli visualized as a director was magnificent.
The action part, the war, was best.
He'd tell me that he wants to do it better than what anyone has done so far.
By 7:30 a.m.,
we used to have 500-600 people completely dressed up,
having breakfast, and ready to shoot.
-There's no point… -Wow!
So once we finish a shot on one side and shift to the other,
all the 2,000 extras have to be shifted to the other side.
Everyone was properly organized and trained.
Take!
We had to bring them on time and take all the necessary shots.
Get unready and prepare all that stuff for the next day.
It isn't just about handling a huge number of people.
It's also about how cleverly you can make it look like more people.
And that obviously needs a lot of support from the director, which we always had.
The way he designed it was incredible.
I think only Rajamouli can do that. Because there were so many characters.
He couldn't miss the drama or the grand visuals.
And he still had to manage everyone and shoot.
I never would have gained the experience of running a production on that scale
if I hadn't worked on a film like Baahubali.
We spent two and a half months filming just the war sequence.
After a hundred days, you really get tired.
We were shooting from seven in the morning until six in the evening.
At least we had fans and air conditioning.
But there were 300 people on set.
They didn't have the luxury of finding a shady spot to rest.
They would just lie down in the sun.
We felt bad waking them up.
The line producer, Valli ma'am,
would ask me to show up in my armor
so they'd feel motivated and get back on their feet.
They would just wake up out of respect for me.
When I met Valli, she seemed very timid, a typical housewife.
You can't imagine her handling thousands of people.
On set, she almost became a commander.
She would hold a stick and say,
"Hey, stand in line."
"Yes, madam."
So, 200-300 people were saying, "Okay, madam."
"Madam, that guy is not standing in line."
That's the scene.
When I saw it, it was the most comical scene you can ever seen.
Baahubali couldn't have been such a great epic…
without the women behind it. Valli, Rama, and Prashanthi.
They were the strong women force behind the screen.
We had brought in many bodybuilders for the war sequence.
We would train them
and make them fight intensely in the scene.
There's a shot where a 100X100 feet cloth falls on people.
We composed the fireball scene in part 1.
I don't know if it was God's grace or luck.
We got the shot in the first take.
I was so happy.
The cloth was tied with many ropes.
It knocked all of them down very quickly.
Many people got injured.
I remember a man breaking his arm.
He broke his hand.
Don't touch his leg.
He walked up to the Line Producer and said,
"I'll quickly go and get it plastered.
He will take my place for the meantime."
He got up on his feet and told us how to execute the shot without him.
He immediately rushed to the hospital.
That level of commitment from a bodybuilder…
who is not even seen in the film, was shocking.
The way they worked to appear at
least in a single shot was commendable.
Hats off to all of them, especially those who weren't seen.
-Out, out, out! -Rolling!
Stop, stop! Don't go!
Music!
We were able to make Baahubali,
only because so many of them committed to the vision.
That is why I never believed
the film belonged just to me.
I constantly remember that a lot of people contributed to this.
I think… Yeah.
On a personal note, Baahubali made me humbler.
If we had known beforehand that
both the parts would need 400 crores,
Baahubali would've never been made.
No doubt about it.
For most films, we have a budget and work towards that budget.
In this case, we did not have a budget in mind.
We would think of what would be the best possible cost…
without compromising on the director's vision.
And whatever it took, we were putting in.
I remember when we just finished the conclusion part,
we had the climax pre-vis ready with us.
We were discussing about the climax, when Shobu had thrown a date at us.
He said, "Kamal, we're going to release our film on this date."
So I started shouting,
"How is it possible? The pre-vis has just come."
"We haven't started shooting the climax yet."
"And you're speaking about the release date."
Shobu being Shobu, was very persistent.
He said, "You can tell me anything, but I want to release the film on this date".
Then I asked him,
"You give me this figure for this particular scene, I will finish it."
Everybody was shocked about the figure, the money I asked.
He thought for five seconds and said, "Okay, sanctioned!"
Having a good producer who is on the same wavelength as the director…
and all the other creatives
within the entire crew is a beautiful thing.
Raising funds for this magnum opus was crazy.
The amount was unheard of.
I think the most expensive film in Telugu cinema till then was Magadheera,
Now we were talking about raising almost five times of the budget of that film.
It was very stressful and…
during the war sequence, especially…
We had junior artists, bodybuilders and fighters in thousands.
It was massive.
After a few days, the per day cost came up to 25 lakhs (or more).
Our four days of war sequence could fund a small film,
about 12 years back.
We were rolling out one crore every four days.
It was a massive number.
Whenever I asked Shobu sir if this budget was doable,
he would laugh it off.
I don't know how he could laugh at this.
It was a nightmare trying to raise money.
Literally, I remember…
Sometimes the shoot would be in two days,
and we still wouldn't have money ready.
We were always running around trying to raise money.
We have our typical financiers,
Mr. Satrange and Mr. Prasad, whose son had supported us.
We started off with them.
We realized midway that there's not enough money in the market…
to support this project.
Even the banks weren't lending money.
The budget kept piling up as the shoot went on.
At one point, I had asked Shobu,
"Don't you think things are going out of hand?"
Shobu only told me one thing…
"Brother, they are doing their best.
There is no wastage of money,
and whatever we're spending on is going to show on screen.
There's no point in going and saying, 'What else can we do?'
It will only spoil the rhythm of the film set.
Let's go through with this and see what happens."
That was enough for me as a partner.
I didn't ask for that meeting again.
And I'm glad I didn't.
I didn't want to be the person who would question this bunch of people…
who were working so hard every day.
So I just took a step back and told Shobu…
"Let's just do it. I will support you."
One of the key components…
in making the world of Baahubali believable was Ramoji Film City.
There's a hill called Telangana Konda,
from where you can see RFC in its entirety.
From there, we could see our set spread across ten acres,
along with the 15-acre war field set
and another 25 acres for a different war set.
The art department sheds covered another ten acres.
In total, we occupied 100 acres of Ramoji Film City.
I would like to thank Mr. Ramoji Rao of Ramoji Film City
and Mr. Bapineedu from ETV.
They stood by us like pillars of support. Since we were shooting extensively
at Ramoji Film City, they extended us a great deal of credit.
They also lent us money at a good interest rate.
Without these people…
I don't think we could have made this film anywhere else.
Once the shoot was over,
the thought of tearing down the entire set…
felt like a knife through my heart.
We had spent years shooting there.
There were so many memories attached to it.
But eventually, we spoke with the RFC team
and decided to turn it into a visitor attraction.
Universal Studios has several old sets
that visitors can walk through and experience.
We wanted the public here to have a similar experience.
Now it's been ten years since the release.
Today, the major attraction of Ramoji Film City is the Baahubali set.
Every day on average,
3,000 people come to visit that set.
Which means Baahubali lives on.
It continues to live in people's minds and hearts.
The Maahishmathi set is one key example,
which is still standing in Ramoji Film City.
While Baahubali as a film shines on its own,
to promote that, there is something
astounding happening in the south of India.
Something that one wouldn't want to miss in this lifetime.
Creating that interest was a whole different game.
Then came the idea of "Behind the Scenes".
Even the BTS footage of Baahubali is huge in scale.
Action!
Trained under the masterful Kattappa,
aided by a formidable army.
The Maharaja summons with grace!
Cut!
One, two, three, four.
We started with birthday wishes…
and went on to show everyone's efforts
through behind the scenes.
A first of its kind.
It piqued massive interest in the public.
It was some magic in the making, for sure!
Action!
Rajamouli sir used to enact each shot for us.
Rajamouli sir picked up the sword and flipped it in the air.
This is the worst part for actors.
When the director enacts it in front of thousand people,
how will you live up to it?
It's very embarrassing when the director does it,
and the actor is still struggling to do it.
Thankfully, people didn't watch the initial making of Baahubali.
It's a big comedy goof-up.
Like a ridiculous comedy film.
We would be up to some nonsense in every shot.
Hi, this is Anushka, playing the role of Devasena.
Welcome to the making of Baahubali.
He sits in an AC room and writes, "Baahubali jumps off a hill."
And I'm supposed to jump.
He looks damn bored.
You did look bored, man. You were sitting somewhere far away.
I would look at you guys and feel left out.
So, yeah.
You wanted to sit on the throne, right? Have fun!
He can't stand us laughing for a second. He pulled the sword away.
Did you see that?
I've never seen a man like him in my life.
I don't think I ever will.
He's not human. He's a strange species.
Is that you trying to hold your laugh?
Yeah, my laugh gets uncontrollable sometimes.
-Trust me, he knows. -I try to control my laugh.
Producer's worried about budget only when Sweetie starts laughing.
Because once she starts laughing,
it takes easily about 40 minutes to calm down.
Producer's heart must be thumping as you start laughing.
-These were the initial days of shoot. -First day…
-First video. -At that time…
You were worried about wasting the Producer's money, weren't you?
You were doing it with rhythm.
I guess I was scared that he'd go for one more take.
This is very cute.
What all this table has heard.
If this table had ears and a mouth,
-we were chatting… -I kept talking, nonstop.
throughout the film shoot.
Devasena, I summon thee.
Alright, time to go!
-I'm ready. -Then move it. Let him sit.
-Oh, he has to take the throne now? -Yes, no problem.
Ramya ma'am has got a very strange laugh.
So, we had fun. That actually helped us.
We all made fun to keep ourselves very relaxed.
That's what I see.
When my statue is raised for the first time,
everyone shouts Baahubali, Baahubali!
You lift the statue up and the public joins you.
He narrated that scene to me for 10 minutes.
I'd say, "Oh, Baahubali is lifting my statue!" and walk away.
What happened in the film and what I believe are two different stories.
That happens to me even now. I have a completely different version of the story.
If you ask me, I'd narrate it differently.
Only Rana
-would see it from his point of view. -Only!
Only I had…
Even when it's a shot on Devasena, he'd say he's caused it.
According to him, Baahubali is desperate for his throne.
Rajamouli is planning the whole thing for Bhallaladeva.
And Shivagami is fighting to fulfill his wishes.
How can everyone be existing for you?
I later realized that I am the reason for the whole story.
I am Baahubali.
If this character didn't exist, Baahubali wouldn't have existed.
Because I had one crippled hand,
because I was not given the throne,
because of that the core drama of Baahubali ensues.
It is with that energy that I shot the entire film.
Baahubali grew on us.
We set out every day, towards a door…
that would open up to the world of Baahubali.
Once we opened that door, a bigger one appeared.
We soon realized that we had to open ten more doors…
to achieve this feat called Baahubali.
We couldn't depend on Telugu States alone to get our returns on this film.
We knew the audience from other states would love it.
But it wasn't a case of wishful thinking.
We were banking on it a 100%
to make sure this movie is profitable.
That was when we took a serious approach.
We felt the need for a strong partner in Hindi
who could platform it and present it like a brand ambassador.
Who would take it personally and with a certain passion.
Not just someone who would treat it like any other cinema.
That's when Karan Johar's name came up. Dharma Productions.
We felt Karan would be out there and be the perfect brand ambassador.
If he likes it, he'll speak about it and present it correctly.
I spoke to him on a phone call the first time.
I wanted to meet, but he was in London at the time.
So I explained why I was calling.
He said, "Rana, are you telling me y'all are making a…
200-crore war film in Telugu?"
I said, "Yeah, that's what we're doing."
He said, "Okay, I don't really understand what you're saying."
"Why don't you come to Bombay and talk to me?"
I said, "Okay." We showed him some stills.
I remember the first line he said.
He said, "Rana, this is what we have to do."
"Are you ready to watch India's biggest motion picture?"
"That should be on every poster and every piece of marketing."
Dharma Studio was presenting the film,
but we still needed someone to distribute it in Hindi.
Anil Thadani heard that we had approached Karan.
He felt he had missed out on releasing Eega,
which was released in Hindi as Makkhi.
He didn't want to make the same mistake again,
so he was very keen to be part of the project.
I met Anil a couple of times,
and we immediately liked his approach. We decided to work with him.
That's how Anil came on board.
What's the release date?
He's been preparing me for four days, and I still forgot.
So after several postponements, we finally settled on a release date.
Exactly one week before the release of Salman Khan's film.
July 10th, exactly one week before Eid.
And in Hindi cinema, the week before Eid is usually considered a dead week.
Nobody releases a film then.
We were trying to convince
ourselves that maybe it's a soft film.
We considered the next week, and Rajamouli said, "Rana, that's a good film."
We asked how he was so confident, and he told us his dad is the writer of it.
It was a very tough spot to actually be releasing…
a film that had no actors from Hindi,
or relatively unknown actors in the Hindi belt.
It was a tough call, but Anil sir said we'll do it.
We worked on Baahubali as if we were possessed or in a trance.
On top of that, we didn't take a break.
We worked so hard, we didn't even stop
to think if we'd make all this money back.
When we got hold of the first copy a couple of days before the release,
that's when it hit us how much the budget was.
The last three days were pure terror.
Even though we believed in the film, it was unheard of.
If we were to surpass the biggest hit till then,
we were going to end up with a loss of a 100 crores.
Today, 200 crores feel doable but back then,
it was too much.
I think we spent around 220 crores.
When the budget had crossed 150-160 crores,
the Producers definitely
took upon the biggest risk.
I don't know how many people would know about it.
But it was a huge risk that we took in making Baahubali.
On the day of the release of part one,
we had a deficit of 70 crores.
What we spent minus what we recovered was 70 crores.
The concept of streaming rights didn't exist.
The main revenue streams were satellite, theatrical and music.
And we hadn't sold the satellite rights by then.
So, there was a deficit of about 70 crores.
Shobu sir and his wife had a discussion at home.
His 8-year-old son asked him,
He asked his mother, Lakshmi "Are we selling the house, mom?
Where are we going to live?"
It was painful to hear all this after 10 years.
Yeah, it was definitely emotional.
All of us went and hugged Shobu sir and Prasad sir.
It's not a joke, what they pulled off.
The Producers pooled in almost a
100 crores from their friends and cousins.
Today, when we look back at it,
it was dangerous, actually.
Even Rajamouli sir had to sign
a lot of money before release.
After all this, the next day morning show was a disaster.
The film opened to rave reviews in Hindi,
as well as the US,
the Gulf and all over the world.
But the majority of money was supposed to come in from Andhra and Telangana.
The reviews here were terrible, to say the least.
An image of Shiva holding a Zandu Balm…
instead of the Shiv Ling was being circulated.
We couldn't process
what went so wrong.
I was completely blank.
I don't know how they survived those 1-2 days.
It was war.
I'm breaking down.
I remember Shobu sir laughing hysterically at everyone.
That was his only response.
We couldn't tell if he understood what was going on.
To be honest, I was in a shell.
All of that actually didn't touch me.
Very little of that information actually came to me.
But I knew that there were whispers of it not doing well.
And then I had my PR calling me and telling me,
"I don't think the reviews are good. We need to do some damage control."
We were discussing what could be done.
I was in Bombay at the time.
I couldn't wrap my head around what they were saying.
The reception that I got after the first industry screening was unmatched.
We had a lot of Bollywood stars come over to Yash Raj.
I had never had an audience like that. They loved everything that they saw.
Prabhas had called me a bunch of times by the time the screening was over.
He asked if certain scenes were decent enough.
I was totally clueless about the atmosphere in Hyderabad.
Did we watch the same film? I wondered.
They said there were mixed reviews, but no.
It was outright negative talk.
We had this experience with his previous films.
Films that were considered average ended up becoming superhits.
So we felt that maybe this film would be a hit too.
But there was also a lot of fear.
We even discussed what we would do if it failed badly.
We didn't have the means to cover those losses.
All we had was a small piece of land in Manikonda that I was planning to sell.
I knew it wouldn't be enough,
but it was the only thing I could do.
I don't think I can ever forget how all of us felt.
It was haunting.
People had already started bashing us on Twitter.
We were on the verge of breaking down.
I was crying,
and as I was heading upstairs to get ready for a show,
I saw Dad walking down the corridor.
I went up to him, hugged him, and burst into tears.
We were all just trying to draw strength from each other.
He went back inside, and I continued walking by myself.
Then our friend Sai, who lives upstairs, came over to me.
He's a distributor.
People usually hesitate to send me hurtful messages,
but they don't hold back with him.
"They're calling it the biggest disaster
in Indian cinema." Those were the kinds of messages he was getting.
Thankfully, he didn't tell me that at the time.
I asked him,
"What's a safe budget for part two,
so we don't end up losing money?"
But it was obvious we couldn't afford it.
As far as we were concerned, it was the end of our careers.
Shobu sir, Prasad sir, and Rajamouli sir would have ended up on the streets.
If anything had gone wrong during the making of part two,
they were sure to end up on the streets.