VFX I am thankful to Uncle (Anant) Pai to inspire me to make 'Baahubali': SS Rajamouli -

I am thankful to Uncle (Anant) Pai to inspire me to make ‘Baahubali’: SS Rajamouli

Today is the day that the makers of ‘Baahubali’ – which is touted to be the most expensive production till date in Indian cinema – released the theatrical trailer with much fanfare in the city of Mumbai on Dolby Atmos.

Present at the gathering were: Director SS Rajamouli’s, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Prabhas Varma, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia and the producer Shobu Yaralagadda.

Baahubali promises a grand cinema experience and the first trailer of the film promises to be an epic journey for viewers. The two-minute long clip is filled with lush landscapes of mountains and waterfalls, temples and palaces and battlefields. The trailer was preceded by a 16-second long teaser on Sunday.

Baahubali is a two-part historical film being made in both Telugu and Tamil. It will be dubbed in Hindi, Malayalam, English and French. The cast also includes Ramya Krishnan, Nassar and Sathyaraj. Part one of the film releases on 10 July.

Rajamouli took to the stage and addressed the gathering on what was his vision when he set out to make this magnum opus nearly three years back. “I would firstly like to take this opportunity to thank my inspiration, Uncle Pai as I have grown up on his Amar Chitra Katha stories and those fantasy tales inspired me to think differently and envision my movies.”

“The crew and cast have worked very hard on the project and it is their sincerity and dedication that has made it possible for me to bring all of you this journey of ‘Baahubali’ on the big screen,” he added.

The trailer clearly showed the magnitude at which the film has been worked upon, with insane visual effects and CG elements being showcased in the short 2 minute clip; but what left a lasting impact was the war sequences which have been magnificently shot and played out on the big screen.

Rajamouli had KK Senthilkumar leading the cinematography in his team to make all the locals look heavenly and very elegant; whereas a certain Sabu Cyril has brought his best to the table with classy sets that give a very realistic feel to the movie. And finally, Srinivas Mohan – the VFX maverick returns to what he does best after the much spoken about Shankar’s I this year to bring Rajamouli’s vision to life with the use of some outlandish visual effects.

The film has been in the news for the heavy use of VFX and roping in 17 different VFX studios from around the world to give a complete and finished look to a piece of cinema that deserves to be seen and appreciated by the world and not just the Indian audience.

Karan Johar was all praise for Rajamouli as he rightly said: “Indian cinema lack stories and visionary directors, but we have Rajamouli sir here who blends technology with heart wrenching stories and that his secret to success.”

Rajamouli is one director in the country who is known to use technology to seamlessly tell his story and never for a moment take away the importance of the story or the performance of the actors. “I believe we can be ruling the world with our movies, because we have one thing that Hollywood can never do honest justice to… and that is emotions. I always play with emotions in all my stories and I will continue to do so because I know that if someone is watching my movie he wants to connect with the characters, and have a out of body experience, I think I have managed some success with it,” he exulted.