“Personally, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in god. I don’t believe in any religion. But I understand the power of spiritualism. For me, spiritualism is an emotion. And I write stories filled with emotions,” Rajamouli told The Associated Press.

To The New Yorker, he said, “There might be some overlap, but I don’t try to bring my personal beliefs into my films. For me, there is a very clear and pure relationship between the audience and me. The audience is paying me their hard-earned money, giving me their time, and expecting some kind of entertainment. That’s my job.”

In a departure from his otherwise cookie-cutter interactions with the Indian media, Rajamouli’s recent spate of interviews to the US press have seen him shoot straight when it comes to hot-button topics, sometimes at the cost of being not-so-politically correct.

Delving further into his personal beliefs, he told the outlet recently that at one point in his life, “I got caught up in my family’s religious fervour. I started reading religious texts, going on pilgrimages, wearing saffron cloth, and living like a sanyasi for a few years. Then I caught onto Christianity, thanks to some friends. I’d read the Bible, go to church, all kinds of stuff. Gradually, all these things somehow made me feel that religion is essentially a kind of exploitation...My love for stories like the Mahabharata or the Ramayana never diminished. I did start pushing away from those texts’ religious aspects, but what stayed with me was the complexity and the greatness of their drama and storytelling.” 

Among the other topics the filmmaker’s touched upon are religious extremism, the Andhra Pradesh-Telangana bifurcation connect in RRR, his political leanings and whether or not there’s an undercurrent of the latter in his films.

“I hate extremism. I hate extreme people in any section of society,” said Rajamouli, when quizzed about his own politics and whether his films may reflect them. While talking about the rise of extremist sentiments in society and their impact on its films, the filmmaker added, “I don’t think in those terms. I always feel like films reflect the society that created them, whatever that society’s feelings are. Films reflect the pace of society because filmmakers have to cater to audiences. They’ll see what audiences like, what their present mood is, and make films for that. If there is a rise in that kind of sentiment in society, those kinds of films will come out. But I always stay away from that. I go a completely different route,” he said.

“I don’t have any kind of hidden agenda. I make films for people who are willing to pay their hard-earned money for the film ticket ,” he reiterated to AFP, adding, “I like to get them entertained, make them feel dramatic about the characters, about the situations, have a good time, go back and live their lives.”

During The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Rajamouli addressed the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, saying, “The bifurcation of the state itself was not a painful one. You can bifurcate a state, but nothing is going to change. The distance is not going to change, the people are not going to change. The relationships are not going to change. It’s just a matter of thinking they are two different states. But what really troubled me was in the process of bifurcating the states, the kind of angst and the kind of anger the people were spewing against each other. And, like, for a small period of time, which part of the state we belonged to became a major topic of discussion for everything. For 45 years, we didn’t even have this notion. Why is this suddenly coming up? Why are the people whom we thought of as brothers and sisters suddenly asking about my regionality and looking at each other as enemies? That really made me feel bad. And there was nothing I could do. So when the idea of RRR came out, my main idea was to bring the two heroes together. And I realized, what if I can bring these two people – one from Andhra, one from the Telangana region – and if I could say these two people were friends? Yes, it is completely fictional, but it’s my way of saying, ‘guys, these two heroes, whom we look up to as demigods, are friends. If they can be friends, if they can sacrifice their life for each other, we can also be the same’. I don’t think many of the people would have got it. I was not vocally saying, that is the reason why I was making it, but it’s almost for myself that I was making it .”

On accusations that RRR’s concluding musical number highlights Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh but omits others like Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar, Rajamouli told The New Yorker, “Whichever stories touched me, made me cry, or made my heart swell with pride – those are the historic figures that I chose for that scene. I could also only highlight eight people in that musical number. I would need room for 80 in order to put all the figures that I respect in the movie. Still, I respect all of the revolutionaries that I chose, and, if I didn’t put Gandhiji’s portrait there, it doesn’t mean I disrespect him. I have huge respect for Gandhiji, no doubt about that. My question is : If I were to replace Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s portrait with Gandhiji’s, would all these people ever question me, saying that I disrespected Subhas Chandra Bose by not portraying him there?”