Most of those connected with the film industry, more so in south India, and die-hard film buffs swear by Bahubali- The Conclusion as the mother of all films thus far and one that blazed a trail that would be hard for others to follow, having crossed the ₹1,000-crore mark.
The budget apart, the sheer scale and grandeur with which the film was shot with ace director S.S. Rajamouli wielding the megaphone, places it on a high pedestal. The accolades that team Bahubali , led by producers Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni, has been receiving has only been in superlatives.
So high it has been ranked that the only films coming anywhere close are the Aamir Khan-starrer PK , with collections pegged at over ₹750 crore, followed by Dangal , another Aamir Khan movie with about ₹700 crore. Then comes Salman Khan’s Sultan and Bahubali- The Beginning raking in roughly about ₹650 crore each.
The hype was generated by Karan Johar, who presented the Hindi version that was screened in about 4,000 screens worldwide, of the total of 9,000 screens that beamed Bahubali-The Conclusion in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi.
The north apart, closer home, especially Telugu film-makers, have been going ga-ga over the movie and have been full of praise that a film that was originally ‘Telugu’ has crossed geographical and liguistic barriers.
Producer Allu Arvind, who made Ghajini and Magadheera , said with Bahubali , Rajamouli has given strength to many producers and directors to dream the ‘biggest of their dreams’ and the inspiration to turn them into reality. “Rajamouli is like a juggernaut of mainstream cinema,” he said.
‘Tagore’ Madhu, as the producer came to be known ever since he made the Chiranjeevi-starrer, termed it a proud moment for south India. “Given its location, Hyderabad is strategically placed in the centre of India and is a perfect location for pan-Indian movies,” he said.
The sky-high praise apart, there are those who consider Bahubali a perfection of marketing strategy. Interestingly, none connected with the core production team have claimed that they had crossed the magic figure of ₹1,000 crore, preferring instead to only say that it was the industry that was claiming it!
