Three major VFX studios, Cinesite (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Trixter (Predator: Badlands), and Assemblage Entertainment (Chhaava), will handle the visual effects for S.S. Rajamouli’s upcoming epic Varanasi, Cinesite announced in a Linkedin post.
Rajamouli, the director of boundary-pushing projects like Eega and massive hits like Baahubali and RRR, is known for his grand world-building and storytelling. A collaboration with big studios like Cinesite, Trixter and Assemblage hints at something massive, as audiences would rightly expect.
Cinesite, headquartered in London, fully owns German studio Trixter, and acquires a majority stake in Mumbai-based animation and VFX studio Assemblage. Assemblage recently bagged the Best VFX for a Feature Film award for its work on Chhaava, at the Cinematography Art Awards 2026. The studio had delivered a prominent sequence for the Hindi-language historic drama starring Vicky Kaushal and Rashmika Mandaanna.
The film stars Mahesh Babu – who is said to play the lead character, Rudhra – and Priyanka Chopra – who returns to Indian cinema as Mandakini.
According to news reports, the film is officially scheduled for a global release on 7 April 2027, and is likely to be made in two parts. It is not being shot in the holy city of Varanasi. Instead, the makers have recreated an elaborate version of the city in Hyderabad, reports say.
