Jakkanna’s Journey — The Story behind SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali
NOTE: I wrote a two-part long form post about Baahubali -The Beginning when the movie was released in 2015. It was done as a Facebook Note and received a wide readership. I am now placing those posts on Medium as Facebook discontinued the Notes feature. I am making some minor edits as I am reposting on Medium.
After hearing and reading about the movie from various on line and offline sources for the past three years, and watching the trailers, reading the reviews after its release, I finally managed to book tickets to watch it with family on Friday, July 17. Many people, including dozens of ‘regular’ film reviewers have already gushed a lot about the visual spectacle of the film. A good number of Telugu ‘intelligentsia’ criticised the ‘regressive’ elements of the movie. Meanwhile, audiences all over the Indian diaspora have made the film one of the biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema already (215 crores in the first 5 days worldwide).
So, why am I writing this post? I feel there are aspects of the film that haven’t been explained properly in most of the quickly hashed out reviews. I have read a few bits and pieces of good critiques of the film along with a mass of standard gushing prose or vehement criticism, but there has been very little informed critique of the craft, the growth of Rajamouli as a film maker, and the Telugu/South Indian school of big budget film making. Also, the reviews of Baahubali, I feel, offer us a unique opportunity to understand the politics of film reviews and discussions.
Let us begin then. This will be a long post, I suspect. I will take my time and cover various aspects of the movie.
There have always been big budget films in South Indian film industry, especially Telugu/Tamil bi-lingual, from the earliest days of motion pictures in India. SS Vasan’s ‘Chandralekha’ (1948) comes to mind immediately. The main plot is that of two brothers fighting over a kingdom and for a beautiful dancer. The bad prince wins the kingdom by stealth and cruelty, but the female lead falls for the good and valorous prince, and they enlist rebels to finally defeat the bad King, and win back the kingdom. Chandralekha was marketed as the most expensive film in India, and had some great rousing music using a lot of drums, trick photography, and enormous sets, including an arresting finale based on the Trojan horse meme. SS Vasan and Gemini studios overshot the budget and knew that a Tamil only version will not recover costs. So, they released a Hindi version, which became a blockbuster hit. Sounds familiar? :)
See the Hindi version of the drum song here:
The story of Chandralekha was not entirely original, as some important plot devices and scenes were ‘inspired’ from a novel by Englishman George Reynolds. George was a naturalized French citizen and a prolific writer of popular fiction, and was probably more widely read than Charles Dickens during the Victorian times. James Hadley Chase and Mills & Boon mixed together and served in paperbacks every month or two. Legend has it that some of the best ‘Indian’ movies had story lines and plots flicked from second hand paper backs found near the pavements outside Church Gate station in Mumbai, and Pondy Bazaar in Madras. I am not implying that there is anything wrong in getting inspired or stealing. Just that this understanding of the evolution of popular films in India should be kept in mind.
Though many big budget films have come from the South (at least one such film every 5–6 years), ‘Chandralekha’ has remained in the imagination of Telugu and Tamil film makers, as a holy grail. Huge budget, international standard technical values, epic story, grandly orchestrated music, and a marketing approach targeted to minimize the chances of the producers going bankrupt — these are the elements that needed to come together.
The key ingredient for any such undertaking is the director. The producers and financiers have to trust the director’s ability to coordinate all 24 crafts of a film, at a scale much higher than existing films. In Telugu industry parlance, this is called the ‘stamina’ of a director. For example, a director who made a hit with a low budget film, would be considered for helming a big budget production, ONLY if the director can convince the producers and other influencers in this highly network dependent industry, that he has what it takes. The director needs to communicate the ‘vision’ to the money bags. Here, one cannot limit the word ‘vision’ only to mean the ability to describe a cinematic vision of the film. From the producers’ POV, they will need to be convinced about the costing aspect also. A good part of pre-production work then will also involve this budget management aspect. Preference will be given to technicians who have the nous to deliver a rich output in a cost effective manner.
Rajamouli and his core team tick all these boxes and more, not only because he has grown his ‘stamina’ with each film. He has a long tradition of mega projects in the Telugu film industry behind him. Folk mythological and historical films have always been grand productions, whether it was K.V.Reddy with Paatala Bhairavi (1951) and Maya Bazaar (1957 — considered among the best films made in India ever), Mosagallaku Mosagadu (1971, India’s first cow boy western film), Alluri Seetarama Raju (1974, one of the most expensive films in India those days), or even Simhaasanam/Singhaasan (1986). Films like Chandralekha and Maya Bazaar had Marcus Bartley as the Director of Photography(DoP). And art direction in South India has always had a rich tradition with masters like Gokhale, Vaikuntham, and Thota Tharani. Sabu Cyril and other Malayali art directors have the advantage of standing on the shoulders of these great creative engineers.
To add to this, Rajamouli has had the benefit of mentorship from K.Raghavendra Rao, who one could argue, is not just a film maker, but someone who has spawned an entire school of film making in Telugu, impacting Bollywood as well.
Raghavendra Rao’s ‘Adavi Ramudu’ (1977) with NTR in the lead showed that a Telugu movie can cross Rs. 1 crore in revenues. When asked by a journalist during the shooting of the film, Raghavendra Rao, who was then 35 years old, famously quipped that he has not discussed the budget of the film with the producer. Telugu audience’s common understanding of the Raghavendra Rao school of film making has some distinguishing elements in terms of song sets, elaborately conceived climax fights, and verbal jousts. And the usage of fruits and flowers as props to ‘objectify’ the heroine via semi-erotic and kitschy songs. Full paisa vasool (bang for the buck)!
However, that is only a description of the output and not of a ‘method’ or a ‘philosophy’. Raghavendra Rao’s approach is hard to describe because it is so simple. Selecting the best talent available for each craft, ensuring they get paid significantly more than what they currently earn per film, have the most commercially saleable stars for the cast, and managing the creative conflicts with a sense of fun and detachment — these are the fundamentals of this school. It is said that Raghavendra Rao wants pin drop silence on the sets, and whilst cast and crew are focused on doing their routines, he would sit at a distance (dressed in all whites), and watch the happenings. No panic, no manic dissipation of energy, and enjoying the journey with a Zen like serenity. And yet, control the entire production in a meticulous manner.
To give an example, take the famous song from Tohfa (1984) starring Jeetendra, Sridevi and Jayaprada. The original script was a bit heavy on sentiment (remake of a Telugu hit, obviously) and both Jeetendra and Sridevi, though bankable stars, did not enjoy success with their respective previous films. Rao figured that unless he manages a heavy opening day collection, it could get tricky at the box office because the family audiences will flock to the theatres only on word of mouth, and that takes a few days to establish, even with the best PR possible. So, he started with a poster.
Tastefully (from his and the market’s perspective) done, the poster whetted the audience appetite well before the release. Some people complained of traffic issues in South Mumbai due to its enormous size (largest poster in Indian outdoor advertising till then). Apparently, people couldn’t take their eyes off Sridevi! Having created a buzz with the poster, he then asked the lyricist and other technicians to conjure up a song based on the poster, and placed the song in between some heavy sentimental scenes, to give ‘relief’. Needless to say, Tohfa was a super hit.
Rajamouli started his career making Telugu commercial ads for an agency owned by Raghavendra Rao. From there, under Rao’s guidance, he graduated into making tele serials for Ramoji Rao’s ETV. Even his first feature film ‘Student №1’ (2001) was co-produced by Raghavendra Rao, and in the credits it was shown as ‘Under the directorial supervision of Raghavendra Rao’. And yes, Raghavendra Rao presented ‘Baahubali’, with Ramoji Rao’s Usha Kiron movies as one of the financiers, and most of the film shot on sets erected in Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad.
So, Rajamouli not only draws from the big budget movie making tradition in South Indian films; he also has a mentoring network and support structure comprising Raghavendra Rao and Ramoji Rao, among others. And now, we come to his family.
Like its counterparts across the country, Telugu film industry works largely on the basis of financial connections, networking, and to a limited or significant extent (depends on who you ask) on caste affiliation; it is nevertheless a system where talent and hard work will overcome any disadvantages. However, for several reasons that I do not want to explain in detail now, the Kamma caste dominates the film industry, by and large. Primarily because many of the oldest film producing families and the first real superstars all came from that community. People from other castes have also attained commercial success and stardom in their crafts, and within the industry, people build relationships across castes, and are affectionate towards each other. Established artists feel the need to openly declare that Telugu film industry is casteless though.
This intro is important because Telugus are caste conscious. One of the first things most Telugus do when they meet a fellow Telugu is to confirm the other person’s caste, indirectly. This is true even when they are in US. Let me correct that. Especially true when they are in US. :) A celebrity or political leader may not have this ‘caste feeling’, but his caste cousins will take pride in claiming his/her accomplishments as their own. All the so called forward castes do this, only the degree is different.
So, some years back, I think after Magadheera (2009), a friend asked me if Rajamouli is a Brahmin. I confessed my ignorance. He asked me to find out somehow because on the internet there is a debate going on about Rajamouli’s caste and people are confirming that he is a Kamma. My friend agreed with me that his caste is irrelevant, but it is ‘good to know’. I am not sure whether the internet Telugus closed their debate before Orkut got closed. In a state where the elevation of Satya Nadella to the top job in Microsoft resulted in some furious debates about his caste in online forums filled with Telugu software engineers, Rajamouli and his cousins have managed to carve out an identity purely as creative professionals. Whether they are Kammas or Brahmins or Rajus or Kamma Brahmins (yes, such combinations are possible among Telugus!), they have ensured that a certain amusing confusion prevails. It makes good sense to place art and humanity above things like caste. It doesn’t mean they will be immune from such conversations in their private lives. In one of his rare non-filmi tweets, Rajamouli spoke about an interpretation of Manu Smriti that a friend shared with him. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/SSRajamouli/posts/285047724938272
The family lives on films and the fine arts. Koduri Venkata Vijayendra Prasad and his brother Shiva Shakti Datta migrated from coastal AP to Karnataka like so many other farming families did, during the 1960s and 70s, to cultivate lands under the Tungabhadra dam. These families went in batches, bought lands and established new Telugu villages in the neighbouring state. These villages were called ‘camps’. Rajamouli was born in 1973 in one such camp — called Amaravathi, in Raichur district. Vijayendra Prasad had the filmi bug. He wanted to write and direct films. Leaving the joint family to tend to the lands, he moved to Madras (Chennai) to look for opportunities in the Telugu film industry. A few years later, Keeravani (son of Prasad’s brother Datta) moved to Madras as well to try his luck in the film music industry. With all family members being passionate about films, and blessed with natural talent, their home itself was a film and music school. Kalyan and Srilekha, siblings of Keeravani, are music directors. Srivalli, wife of Keeravani is a line producer of music. Rama, wife of Rajamouli is a cine costume designer. Kanchi, brother of Rajamouli, is a writer too.
Vijayendra Prasad struggled as a writer, and got his big break only in 1988 with Janaki Ramudu (directed by Raghavendra Rao). Keeravani found work with music director Chakravarthi and got his own break with Manasu Mamatha (1990, made by Usha Kiron movies of Ramoji Rao). He quickly became a star music director with consecutive hits like Ram Gopal Varma’s Kshana Kshanam, Chiranjeevi’s Gharana Mogudu, and is going strong till today. (More about his music for Baahubali later). For Rajamouli and other cousins, Keeravani’s success was the catalyst needed to focus completely on chasing their dreams.
Rajamouli started his career as an assistant to editor Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao (Chanti garu).Vijayendra Prasad was penning stories, and young Rajamouli became his narrator during story sittings with the producers and directors. The Telugu film industry was moving to Hyderabad those days (early 1990s), and Rajamouli followed suit. Raghavendra Rao accepted a role as electronic media advisor to the state government of AP, and Rajamouli got a break to make TV ads for the Government. Impressed by his work ethic, Raghavendra Rao took him under his wing, and gave him a tele serial (Shanti Nivasam) to direct. Rajamouli proved himself again, and the prize was the chance (without him asking for it, according to Rajamouli) to direct the debut film of Junior NTR. Though the film was a hit, the credit went mostly to the young hero and the ‘supervisor of direction’ Raghavendra Rao. No chances came by Rajamouli’s door. A fantasy subject he proposed with Raghavendra Rao’s son Prakash (of Morning Raga fame) never took off, and it was two long and frustrating years before Rajamouli got a chance to direct again. He delivered a block buster hit with Simhaadri (2003) starring Junior NTR again. He has never looked back since, and improved as a film maker with each subsequent film.
The immensely entertaining Yamadonga (2007), another hit with Jr.NTR, is remarkable for two reasons. The first one, in the context of Rajamouli’s journey, is the use of graphics. Rajamouli had a few hits by then, and confidently went for a socio-fantasy subject with a comic treatment, and clever use of VFX to achieve what he wants to see on the screen. Once smitten with VFX, he probably figured that all his future films will use these enhancements for cinematic effect. The second reason is something unheard of in Telugu films till then — a superstar hero being asked by the director to lose weight to suit a role better. Jr.NTR, though a natural and terrific dancer, and a confident actor with a flawless diction (got his grandfather’s genes obviously), never shed his puppy weight after Student №1. He had put on many extra pounds instead, and the hits became scarce. Rajamouli needed NTR to lose weight quickly, and the actor obliged by having a bariatric surgery. The new, lean and mean look for NTR delighted his loyal fans. Rajamouli reached the top rung of Telugu directors. With DoP Senthil joining from ‘Sye’, a movie based on rugby, and the regular team of Venkateswara Rao (editor), Vijayendra Prasad (story writer), and Keeravani (music director), his team was now in place to realise bigger dreams.
Magadheera (2009) was just that. A bigger dream. Winner of the National award for special effects, Magadheera rewrote all box office records in Telugu films, and took brand Rajamouli to the next level, way ahead of his contemporary directors. Others like Puri Jagannadh, Trivikram Srinivas, Srinu Vaitla and Krishna Vamsi have had huge hits too, but Rajamouli’s dedication to sculpt a scene till he is satisfied, made Rajeev Kanakala (TV and film actor) give him the affectionate nickname ‘Jakkanna’, after the master sculptor of Belur and Halebid temples in Karnataka. The name got stuck.
He could have signed films with any of the super stars in South after Magadheera. In a way, a Magadheera had to happen if Rajamouli had to attempt something like Baahubali. A story of reincarnations, it made a super star out of Chiranjeevi’s son in just his second movie.
Rajamouli did not rush though. He made a ‘low budget’ film called ‘Maryada Ramanna’, and casted comedian Sunil as a hero. Many people thought that Rajamouli was trying to overreach himself in an effort to prove that he doesn’t need a big star to score a hit. The first and definitive move away from the Raghavendra Rao School. The legendary Rao was probably amused at this experiment by his protégé. Confounding his detractors, Maryada Ramanna, became a surprise super hit. (It was later remade into Hindi as ‘Son of Sardar’ and did well there too, just like ‘Rowdy Rathore’ which was a remake of Rajamouli’s Vikramarkudu from 2006). Maryada Ramanna was also remade into all south Indian languages and tasted success everywhere.
Industry watchers now expected regular service (movies with big heroes) to resume, with Rajamouli having proved a point. But the film maker had different plans. His father Vijayendra Prasad has the good knack of getting ‘inspired’ by the right kind of foreign language films. An Australian short film called Cockroach was released in 2010. A man dies in a road accident, and gets reincarnated as a Cockroach. He now needs to convince his widowed wife that he is alive as a cockroach. Yes, it was a black comedy. Rajamouli saw great potential in the idea and the ‘Eega/Makkhi’ project was born. The team of VFX experts, who worked with him for Magadheera, were now ready for bigger things. After tasting success with Rajamouli, Arka media works, a production house started by Shobhu Yarlagadda (Raghavendra Rao’s son-in-law) and Prasad Devineni was ready to fund the next adventure.
I am not sure if Rajamouli or Raghavendra Rao own any stake in Makuta VFX, the company started by the Magadheera graphics team led by Pete Draper. But I think Rajamouli played a key role in the formation of Makuta. Their first big project was ‘Eega’. According to Sai Korrapati, the first time producer of Eega (2012, Vaarahi films), he met the director during a shooting of Yamadonga. Sai was from the Andhra ‘camps’ in Karnataka as well, and tasted some success as a film distributor thanks partly due to his connections with NTR’s family. May be that common connection of being Telugu migrants in rural Karnataka helped a bit in Rajamouli picking Sai as his producer for Eega.
Eega was supposed to be an experimental film (to see how much can be done by home grown VFX talent), and had an initial budget estimate of Rs. 2 crore. That was the money Sai Korrapati could afford at that time. However, Eega was as much a software project as it was a film project. Rajamouli and the Makuta VFX team kept figuring out the possibilities, and the budget kept increasing. Sai didn’t have an issue raising finances from Rs. 2 crore to Rs.30 crore, thanks to the Rajamouli brand. Kannada star Sudeepa’s terrific performance as the villain in Eega competed with the pull of special effects. In the end, this ‘experimental’ film became one of the biggest hits of the year, won many awards both at home and abroad, and more importantly for the director, his VFX team learned their ropes.
Rajamouli was now ready to push the envelope even further. Vijayendra Prasad had a story about an ancient kingdom (inspired from multiple sources I am sure), which offered scope for Rajamouli to dream as much as he can. Arka Media Works has become a seasoned production house, and the experience of co-producing a film with Walt Disney Pictures (Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu, 2009) and their own line producing experience probably convinced them to take the big plunge with Rajamouli.
Rajamouli had Makuta VFX and a few other animation houses in Hyderabad he could count on. However, he needed the best in the country for Baahubali. And the best VFX expert in the country happened to be in Chennai, working on choice assignments such as Robo, Krish and so on. Srinivas Mohan Vadlamudi hails from Vijayawada and started career as a regular animation programmer. He was the early entrant in an exciting industry, and has been delivering world class work using mostly local talent, supported by select global talent. In one of his interviews, Srinivas said that Indian animation artists have the technical skill, but lack artistic talent. Giving the example of an object falling on the ground, he says that a typical Indian animator would just make the ‘fall happen’, whereas a trained global animator would also think through and create the effect of dust rising from the earth, when the object lands. Rajamouli found his perfect VFX supervisor in Srinivas — talented, hardworking, and above all, a perfectionist.
Rajamouli sold his dream to Srinivas Mohan, and they figured that it would need a 1 full year of pre-production effort, and 3 years to release the film. Arka was willing to take the risk of getting into a production where they know the budget would be overshot signficantly. Rajamouli signed up the actors for the principal roles for a 3-year contract. The hero, Prabhas, was on a hot streak of success, but he willingly gave bulk dates for 3 years, and just like NTR in 2007, agreed to mould his body per the director’s wishes. He had to put on 20+ kilos to play the royal warrior and then lose weight for the role of Shivudu (the tribal hunk). Actress Anushka had to do almost the same — put on weight for Devasena’ss role in the first part, and look her normal self for the role in Part 2.
An entire area of Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad was cordoned off, and Sabu Cyril, one of the premier art directors of the country got into the task of researching and creating the palaces and forts of Mahismati kingdom.
And so, the journey began in 2012 ending with the release of Baahubali- The Beginning, on July 10, 2015. It has been 10 days, and at least in the Telugu states, there is no sign of box office fatigue. The buzz continues to spread.
Has Rajamouli achieved 100 % of what he wanted to see on the silver screen? His early disappointments when he saw his father’s stories ending up quite differently in the final product, made him chase the dream of 100% of ‘what I visualise is what the audience would see’. By his own admission after the first few hits, he was able to achieve only 70 to 80% of what he wanted on the screen. Has the technical team of Senthil (camera), Sabu (art), Keeravani and Kalyan (songs, BGM and sound supervision), Rama Rajamouli (Costumes), Chanti garu (editing), and Srinivasa Mohan (VFX) combined well enough to deliver the director’s vision? What influences of Raghavendra Rao School found their way into Baahubali, and which were the other ‘inspirations’? Are the visual effects really as good as Avatar and other Hollywood flicks, or is it just that they were more bang for the buck — the best one could do in India, and with the given budget of less than 40 million USD for two films. VFX and grand sets are fine, but has Rajamouli improved upon his cinematic craft — of plot devices, screen play (his weakest point in my opinion), etching of characters, and the classical unities of time, place and action? Should we see Baahubali simply as a milestone in Telugu commercial cinema, or is a bigger story developing here? Are the critics of various hues making valid points, or is it a question of them simply ‘not getting it’? What feedback should a reviewer or critic give to Rajamouli, the Student №1 of film making?
I will seek to tackle these questions in the next part of this essay. Yes, I thought of doing a review, and ended up writing this far, without saying a word about my own feelings after watching the movie. If you have read through this essay and reached this point, a big thanks from my side, and apologies for not talking about the film. We will do our own conclusion of Baahubali- The Beginning in the next post.
NOTE: The readers I have in mind are primarily film buffs, with an interest in the sociology of entertainment. If you are a Telugu film buff, you would probably know most of the stuff I wrote about, and disagree with a few statements. I am happy to read and understand diverse opinions and learn new facts. So, please comment away. Just want to request that any comments about caste/s should not cross the line of polite behaviour. If you must ventilate, please try to use wit. That will convey the message, and brings a smile to even your opponents.
