Filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali franchise not only transformed Indian cinema but also became the first Indian film franchise to cross the ₹1,000 crore mark at the worldwide box office. However, the film’s release day turned out to be one of the most nerve-racking experiences for the cast, producers and Rajamouli himself. In the Netflix documentary Baahubali: The Torchbearer, the filmmaker recalled how the film was initially labelled “Indian cinema’s biggest disaster”, leaving the team convinced that their careers were over.
SS Rajamouli recalls the release day fear of Baahubali
SS Rajamouli and producer Shobu Yarlagadda, who backed the film under Arka Media Works, explained that there was no fixed budget at the start of production. Shobu revealed that they were constantly scrambling to arrange funds for the next day’s shoot.
“After a few days, the per-day cost went up to ₹25 lakh or even more. Our four-day war sequence alone could have funded an entire small film 12 years ago. We were spending around ₹1 crore every four days,” he said.
Rajamouli revealed that because of the film’s enormous budget, its success could not depend solely on the Telugu states. “We couldn’t depend on the Telugu states alone to recover our investment. We were banking on the film working across multiple languages to ensure it became profitable,” he said.
That search eventually led them to Karan Johar. When Rana Daggubati pitched the film to Karan and showed him its stills, he immediately agreed to distribute it in the Hindi market.
‘It was a war’
However, the day of release was nothing short of terrifying.
“On the day of the release of Part One, we still had a deficit of ₹70 crore. What we had spent, minus what we had recovered, left us ₹70 crore in the red,” Shobu recalled.
Rajamouli said, “The film opened to rave reviews in Hindi, as well as in the US, the Gulf and other international markets. But the majority of our revenue was expected to come from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The reviews there were terrible, to say the least. An image of Shiva holding a Zandu Balm instead of the Shivling was being circulated. We couldn’t process what had gone wrong. I was blank.”
Prabhas became emotional while recalling the day and said, “It was a war. I don’t know how the producers survived that day.”
Associate producer Karthikeya Vijay Yarlagadda, Shobu’s son, also remembered the panic surrounding the release.
“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,” he said.
Rajamouli also recalled a conversation with one of his distributors, who told him about the industry’s reaction to the film.
“They’re calling it the biggest disaster in Indian cinema. Those were the kinds of messages he was getting. As far as we were concerned, it was the end of our careers,” Rajamouli said.
Fortunately, things changed dramatically later that evening. Positive word of mouth began spreading, and over the following week the film shattered box office records in the Telugu states while continuing its strong run in the Hindi market.
About the Baahubali franchise
The Baahubali franchise began in 2015 with Baahubali: The Beginning. The epic fantasy film starred Prabhas in a dual role alongside Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj and Nassar. The film received widespread acclaim for its visual effects, performances and Rajamouli’s direction, becoming the highest-grossing Telugu film at the time.
Its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, became an even bigger phenomenon and remains one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, earning around ₹1,788 crore worldwide.