So, Saaho's first-day collections in the North were around 26 crores.
Around 26.5.
That was really shocking.
It happened only because of Baahubali.
There's nothing else to it.
The opening day for any language was only because of Baahubali.
And that was a bit shocking for a lot of people in the industry.
We could spend so much on Saaho, or the ship episode of Radhe Shyam,
or any film I did later on. Only because of Baahubali.
Otherwise, my earlier films had a 20 to 40 crore budget.
Suddenly, the budget was so high, and the success of Baahubali was so big
that we had the freedom to spend.
We got a strong opening.
It worked out well, not just for me,
but for a lot of other industries and filmmakers.
Baahubali is the film that told the world we had arrived.
Indian cinema had arrived.
Today, we say Telugu cinema is the biggest industry in India.
But at the time when we were making Baahubali,
he was one of the very few who could dare to dream on an international level.
Before Rajamata Shivagami, I had become synonymous with Neelambari.
I thought no future role of mine would surpass that.
The fact that I found something greater,
the legacy of Rajamata Shivagami…
is something I never expected.
So, I remember going to the US for surgery and heading back.
I had lost a lot of weight. I became very thin.
I was in this dilemma that…
I was coming back to India after almost 1.5 years.
I wondered what my next film should be.
How is my career going to look when I go back?
I had a mask at the airport.
It was the American Airport in Chicago.
There was an African-American guy in front of me and…
as soon as I took out that mask, he said…
"Oh, my God! It is the King Bhallaladeva!"
I said, "How can it get any bigger than this?"
An African-American in America is recognizing you for the work you've done.
That moment felt very special to me.
I have noticed this in India as well as abroad.
After Baahubali, there are Westerners who recognize me,
which never happened before.
It opened the iron doors of a global market.
Very rarely you see an Indian film
being appreciated by a global audience.
Baahubali was the one which opened the window.
Baahubali also gave Indian
popular cinema the liberation…
to experiment with things.
To think beyond the barriers.
That is what I believe Baahubali has done.
Even outside of the country,
they would call me out of the crowd saying 'Baahubali'!
There's a small island called Fiji next to Australia.
The total population is just 8 lakhs.
I went there for the shooting of a movie called 'Party'.
All the eight lakh people on that island had watched Baahubali.
They told me, "Sir, if there are 8 lakh people on this island,
I think even Hyderabad and Chennai would have a population of more than a crore".
All of them fully surrounded me saying, "Hey, Kattappa, Kattappa, Kattappa!"
I have had people come up to me in Italy and say my name.
Even in Peru, where I had gone for some charity work,
the kids told me how much they loved Baahubali.
Post-Baahubali effect was madness.
Someone in Norway went up to Rajamouli sir and said "I think you are a director."
And since he doesn't talk much,
he said, "Yeah, you are an Indian director, I know."
Five minutes later, he again goes,
"I think you're the director of Baahubali."
All the places Baahubali had reached was just magic.
Similarly, we went to Sikkim for a shoot.
In all of Sikkim, especially among South Indian actors,
they only knew the name Kattappa.
On the way to Sikkim, they stopped me and took photos at every toll gate.
I felt very proud.
The after-effect was amazing.
When I wake up in a new country, and people still recognize me,
I call Rajamouli and ask,
"Won't you allow me to travel in this lifetime?"
"Don't I deserve a personal life?"
Earlier, we would go to Bombay or Delhi to get away. That's not an option anymore.
Now, wherever we go in the world, someone comes up and says 'Baahubali'.
When we travel abroad, my friends would say to the airport authorities,
"Who do you think this is? He's the producer of Baahubali."
That one sentence opened many doors. Immigration, what?
I told Rajamouli this. "You're not using the fame. But I am".
The impact was huge.
Why aim only at Pan-India? This film had the potential to cross national borders.
We hadn't focused much on other countries, as much as we did on other states.
Our patience and courage didn't go beyond a point.
But we did make an effort.
I think when Shobu garu went to Cannes and widened his network,
he connected with a Japanese distributor, Keizo Kabata.
He could see that we were genuinely working hard
So he helped us release it in Japan.
Releasing it in Japan itself was a huge deal for us.
When we saw the response
and the tweets we were getting,
we were like, "Is this really happening?" We couldn't believe our own eyes.
Japan feels like a second home to me, to us.
They would show up at my house in chudidaars. It makes me emotional.
Visiting Japan has been long overdue. I'm definitely going this time.
They don't trouble you or click selfies on their cellphone without consent.
They wait for their turn with their cameras and gently ask for a picture.
The respect is unmatched. The country is in a league of its own.
So many of them even wrote letters to us.
I think all of us see Japan as our second home.
They liked it so much that
when we trimmed Baahubali 1 from 2 hours 47 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes…
to cater to the International audience.
The Japanese audience felt very sad to know that we did this.
They said, "That's not done! We want the full version."
So, after the international version ran for a few days,
we took it down and released the original version again.
Truly, the response from Japan was something amazing.
Since they loved it so much,
we sent Subbaraju there for a Comic-Con event.
Subbaraju played one of the supporting characters in the film.
From what they were saying,
I gathered that they really connected
with the character of Kumara Varma
and fell in love with him.
That made me very happy.
But they had fallen in love with Kumara Varma, not Subbaraju.
I reminded myself of that.
So when I visited Japan,
I thought I should show up as Kumara Varma.
I asked Rama garu if I could borrow the costume,
the turban, and the jewelry,
and I carried the whole outfit with me to Japan.
That's how I showed up as Kumara Varma in Japan.
The kind of fabrics we use
are not readily available there.
But somehow, they manage to get them
and have those costumes made when they come to meet us.
They also learn Telugu and prepare welcome notes for us in Telugu.
I don't know how big fans they are of us,
but we are all huge fans of the Japanese.
When I went to Japan last year,
I visited this theater where 600-700 fans were present.
Most of the fans were predominantly women.
They were walking by and I was shaking hands with everyone.
There was one gentleman who told me that…
he got married three-four years back.
His wife was a very good fan of mine.
She passed away six months before.
There was a picture of her wearing the Kumara Varma attire…
and holding my photo.
When he showed it to me,
I had tears in my eyes.
I had cried after so long.
I was shattered looking at him.
It's impossible to put that feeling into words.
Only if you go there, stand with them,
see them with your own eyes, hear them with your own ears and experience it,
you would understand that feeling.
I simply cannot express it in words.
We have been waiting for this moment for the last 10 years.
Japan is like a second home to all of us.
Thank you all for all the love.
Again, thank you so much for all the love, for appreciating our films.
Really happy to be here.
And hope you enjoy Baahubali the Epic as much as you loved Baahubali 1 and 2.
Thank you from all of us.
Baahubali Jai Ho!
Among the many successes that Baahubali had achieved,
one thing that was also on the pinnacle was…
when Baahubali was played in the Royal Albert Hall.
The string section played the main role in the orchestra there.
And of course, the violins and the bass section,
the brass and woodwinds, it was all there.
Actually, I didn't know what a big deal it was until I got there.
My parents and I were quite nonchalant about it.
But once we got there, we realized it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
What stumped me was when I saw all the events that happened there.
Winston Churchill's speech.
Mohammad Ali's victory.
I was like, "What? Are we a part of these global events now?"
It was amazing to be a part of something so monumental.
Albert Einstein also showcased something there.
I was like, "What's going on?" It was pretty amazing!
Sitting there in the audience and enjoying that experience gave me,
let's say, 25 paise of pleasure/excitement.
Let me tell you an experience that gave me four times that excitement.
I meet many musicians, composers and programmers on my visits to Bombay.
They keep asking me, "Sir, in Part 2…
did you use the strings from Bulgaria or London?"
"Or did you bring them in from the US or Japan?"
I could have lied. It's show business, after all.
They would believe it, no matter which country I lied about.
But I prefer to tell the truth.
In Part 1, we used Chennai strings.
But in Part 2, believe me, we did not use live strings at all.
Everything was programmed by the programmers,
-Interesting. -Mr. Jeevan Babu and Dinesh,
the expert programmers.
I was able to break the myth that
non-local artists do a better job.
I have worked with pioneers like Rajini sir and Shankar sir and Rahman sir.
They couldn't believe that this is done by our team here.
Their first question was, "Where did you execute this?"
I told them majority of the shoot happened here in Hyderabad.
They were shocked to know that we pulled it off in India.
Baahubali was a defining moment for visual effects.
With Baahubali, we achieved a certain level of visual effects quality.
There were many projects before Baahubali,
from a visual effects point of view,
that were struggling to sell visual effects to the audience.
Whenever we would ask Producers for extra…
money to create a particular sequence,
they would sideline us and never really give priority to visual effects.
But after Baahubali,
they realized that one has to put money into visual effects to make money.
That is one of the major changes that Baahubali has brought.
Even regarding big Indian films like RRR and now SSMB,
Baahubali was the film that essentially gave that confidence.
And, action!
Cheer for Baahubali!
"Baahubali! Baahubali! Baahubali!"
It was super stressful after Baahubali.
What's next for me?
A high-packed drama like Baahubali?
Something more visual? But that was Rajamouli.
We thought we'd do a screenplay-based film.
Then we thought we'd do a love story.
There were discussions with Prashanth Neel and Nagi.
The two films that came right after Baahubali were incredibly stressful
when it came to choosing the right story.
What would audiences in Bombay and Tamil Nadu like?
What about Kerala, Gujarat, Jaipur, or even Japan?
It was extremely stressful for our team.
At first, we considered a screenplay-driven film.
Then we thought about doing a love story
because we couldn't make another action film right away.
Every step after Baahubali felt experimental and stressful.
I couldn't sleep properly for two or three years after Baahubali.
The level of responsibility in every department
suddenly increased a thousandfold.
Those were the most stressful years of my life after Baahubali.
But yeah, anyway, we had the mother, the great Baahubali,
which made it possible for us to go on and make Kalki and Salaar.
It's all because Baahubali happened first.
Every other project that I wanted to do going ahead,
the only thing I told myself was that…
I have this success because of one man's vision…
and the entire team that supported him.
That's what made Baahubali.
Going ahead, I needed to do something, maybe not on the scale as he does it,
but I knew there had to be
honesty in every script I choose.
It's not an easy platform to get,
to project and empower such female characters.
So, any character that I take on further…
should come with a sense of responsibility and honesty.
People ask me how Baahubali helped me.
As an actor, a filmmaker, and a writer,
more than what Baahubali taught me on screen,
what I learned behind the scenes was 10X.
It changed me.
Post-Baahubali, I started acting in Telugu, Hindi, and other languages.
As an actor, this film took me to a whole new level.
I don't know if I will ever get a character like this again.
I received so many compliments; it made me wonder,
"What should I do next? What could be bigger than this?"
The kind of compliments that came with a sense of fear.
Action!
Cut it!
Rajamouli sir never once said "Wow" or anything like that on sets.
But when I was a judge on a show, he came for a promotional event.
That's when he said on the show,
"The best casting I've done in my career is Shivagami."
Coming from a director who knows his craft,
who knows actors, and has worked with many,
hearing him say that felt bigger than a National Award to me.
It gave me the strength to constantly explore more and…
not have any kind of boundaries when it came to myself as an actor or a person.
It wasn't just career defining.
The film has probably impacted me
the most when it comes to who I am today.
When I was handling the production for RRR,
at every point, I used to go back and think…
how Shobu garu would have handled this situation.
Or how Valli aunt would have handled it.
Twice or thrice a day, my mind would go back to the Baahubali days…
and how things used to be handled.
Baahubali's marketing strategy helped me in…
positioning RRR wherever it is right now.
Until then, we mostly just followed established systems.
But I learned something new
with Baahubali every day.
Let's go, Mr. Srinivas!
Cut!
Professionally, I took a lot of positive influence from…
Shobu, Nandi, Rama and Valli.
Everyone worked so hard.
Personally, I gained a huge extended family.
They're like my own family.
We still hang out together.
The bond we share is very deep and emotional.
Baahubali shifted the industry's focus
towards visually immersive storytelling.
Cinematographers started getting much more prominence…
in how a story is told, and which cinematographer suits best.
Visuals became a critical aspect of the narrative,
giving cinematographers their long-awaited due.
Despite working in cinema for 25 years on various films…
And…
People today remember me primarily for Baahubali.
For the last decade, it's all anyone talks about.
I'm always introduced as a part of the Baahubali team,
which has given me incredible mileage.
I'll be introduced as the person who did Baahubali.
Wherever I go.
"This is Kamal Kannan, he did Baahubali!"
The scale and lavishness of the film…
has inspired many new technicians to join the industry.
I'm very proud that so many young people…
took up cinematography after watching Baahubali.
Many parents tell me their kids wanted to jump into visual effects…
specifically, because of this film.
The landscape of Indian Cinema completely changed after Baahubali.
I've worked on about 50 films, but…
this one will always be my benchmark.
I never in my wildest dreams thought I would win a National Award for Baahubali.
"Best Action Direction and Stunt Choreography for Baahubali 2…
goes to King Solomon."
I was unimaginably surprised and humbled.
I felt like I didn't even deserve it.
It is something I'll cherish
until my dying day.
Working on Rajamouli garu's films has a massive impact on your career.
Because of Baahubali, I started getting opportunities…
for huge, VFX-heavy movies.
Kamal Kannan is much more confident today…
simply because of Baahubali 2.
Whenever I introduce myself as CV Rao from Annapurna Studios…
and then mention Baahubali.
People everywhere are immediately in awe,
both in India and abroad.
Baahubali pushed Annapurna Studios to elevate our post-production facilities…
to a premium level.
It inspired me to make our facility the absolute best…
in the Indian film industry.
For me, Baahubali has been a roller-coaster ride.
It's a lifelong journey,
and I don't think it's ending anytime soon.
I truly believe our journey with this franchise still has a long way to go.
Now, when I look at a new project, I ask myself,
"How well will I work with this director, this technical team, and these actors?"
"Will I enjoy the process of working with them?"
"Will we create something memorable together?"
That's how my thinking has evolved since Baahubali.
And action!
Working on Baahubali was like earning a PhD in filmmaking.
I'm not saying I've mastered it yet,
but I couldn't have gained that knowledge and experience anywhere else.
I'm fortunate to have experienced it at such an early age.
Nice!
Karthik, this is madness!
This doesn't happen in every film.
No, sire. Since I'm a dog, I sniffed the truth out.
You know Larry David, the brilliant writer who created Seinfeld.
They added the phrase to the cultural lexicon,
"This is a Larry David situation."
Similarly, people now use "Baahubali" to describe…
things in daily life, like a "Baahubali-sized Dosa".
They embraced the word "Baahubali"
-so well on a cultural front that… -That's…
The word 'Baahubali' has essentially become a synonym for…
-something massive and larger than life. -Something large and big.
Knowing that it has become an adjective for greatness…
gives me a deep sense of fulfillment.
If your dreams don't scare you,
they aren't big enough.
Please dream big, because anything is possible.
When we set out to make Baahubali, it was a terrifyingly huge dream.
Being part of a film that stayed relevant for so long…
is a true blessing.
Getting an opportunity like this…
feels like good karma from a past life.
Playing Shivagami in Baahubali was that ultimate blessing for me.
I could never forget Baahubali, even if I'm in a coma.
Action
Cut it.
Can I have it?
It means a million, no, a billion different things to me.
I am incredibly lucky to be part of
one of cinema's greatest experiences.
Yeah, incredibly lucky.
If you truly believe in your art,
it can take you across the globe.
Art transcends language and borders.
That realization is more special than any single comment.
It constantly overwhelms me to see the true magic and power of cinema.
I want to thank Rajamouli garu, Shobu garu, and the entire team…
for making me a part of this magic.
I will cherish those moments we spent together forever.
My Sword.
Give it back.
After Baahubali Part 2 released,
my sister-in-law visited a local salon where…
an elderly lady recognized her and asked,
"Dear, you worked on Baahubali, right?"
She said, "Thanks a lot. I watched Part One. I'm actually a cancer patient".
"I was terrified that…
I might pass away before Part Two releases."
"But I lived to see it, and I am so happy," she said.
It was an incredibly emotional moment.
There are countless such emotional stories tied to Baahubali.
From inside our crew to fans across the world,
so many deeply personal stories were shared.
But that one incident is something I will never, ever forget.
There's a quote that I really love and believe in.
It's the quote that I gave Rajamouli at the very beginning of our project.
I actually got it handwritten by my wife, Lakshmi.
It's a quote from Paulo Coelho, which says,
"When you truly want to achieve something,
all the universe conspires to make it happen."
I think Baahubali was one such example where…
so many things came together,
and the universe really conspired
in many ways that we hadn't anticipated.
-Valli ma'am. -Get down for now.
The throne is yours in the film anyway. Let him have it off-screen.
I don't think anyone could put it better than Peddanna
in the final lines of Baahubali: The Conclusion.
"When a man stood with conviction, even God stood beside him."
"The world celebrated his courage."
"When he fought with faith as his weapon,
even fate fell to its knees."
No quote captures Baahubali better.
I don't know if I should say this publicly,
but since Rajamouli and Shobu garu aren't here,
I'll just say what's on my mind.
The world may not be ready yet,
-but there will be more Baahubali… -Baahubali!
Cut!