Baahubali 2 and its sublime success both locally and globally have impacted certain production decisions as suddenly, Tollywood, the Telugu film industry, has realized the fine formula of churning out global success through universal narratives. In a recent interview, Allu Aravind, a famous filmmaker who, like Rajamouli, hails from Tollywood, stated that he would be in the helm of making an extravagant Ramayana spanning across three parts and having a budget of 500 crores. Surely, the ambition is high and Bollywood has joined hands too in this project.
The plan of the project
Namit Malhotra along with Madhu Mantena will become the producers of this grand project and it will be, as usual, multilingual, spanning across Tamil, Hindi and Telugu speakers around the country and the globe. Apparently, the project has been brewing for a year despite no one putting pen to paper. Of course, the star cast will play a pivotal role in this case. So, the producers have decided to be patient.
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion seems to be spreading like a virus as these producers are clearly affected by it. The director said that the epic tale of Ramayana deserves an epic rendition and it is precisely why he is taking up this project. Given the scale of Baahubali, it will be difficult to match its excellence and the producers are measuring water before starting it.
Rajamouli has inspired
Not only Aravind, but other filmmakers have started getting influenced by this magnum opus of Rajamouli. A Dubai-based producer apparently has promised 1,000 crores worth budget for a supremely stylized Mahabharata that will blow the minds of everyone. Like the release of Baahubali in 4K high definition format, the proposed Ramayana will be released in completely 3D format, making it another milestone in film technology of India.
Given the erstwhile popularity of mythological in Tollywood with NTR, Krishna et al. being famous for their ground-breaking roles in these films, this could possibly be a return to the past. While there is much hullabaloo about these grand projects, whether they can actually match the skill of SS Rajamouli or not is to be seen in the coming years.