Baahubali is a cinematic gift that keeps on giving. After Baahubali: The Epic opened in theatres this October, 2027 will bring Baahubali: The Eternal War Part 1. The animated epic will take off from S S Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Beginning’s climax (2015) and follow Prabhas’s Amarendra into the afterlife.

Ishan Shukla, who is helming the two-part animated feature that will have Prabhas and Ramya Krishnan voice the two primary characters, says the idea came from Rajamouli and producer Shobu Yarlagadda almost two years ago. At the time, Shukla was doing festival rounds with his animation film, Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust (2024).

“The Star Wars episode that I had done had also come out. Shobu got in touch with me and wanted to explore if we could do something together on Baahubali. At that time, I wasn’t sure if I was capable of doing something huge like that,” he recounts.

Shukla found the confidence to lead this ambitious project in the most unlikely place — in his eight-year-old self. “I had the largest collection of Amar Chitra Katha in my community. I thought maybe I could do something for that eight-year-old self,” smiles the director.

The Amar Chitra Katha stories and their grammar gave him the foundation for the feature. “I wanted to justify the use of animation. So, I came up with the idea of the afterlife, and included Vedic cosmology.”

For world-building and characters, he also found inspiration from Telugu cinema of the 1960s and 70s. “We referred to the mythological film Maya Bazaar [1957]. The idea was to start from a point of authenticity, and then layer it with contemporary stylization, something like the series, Arcane, or the Spider-Verse.”

In the course of making The Eternal War, Shukla met Rajamouli many times over. Ask him his biggest learning from the ace director, and he says, “As visual artists, we think that we can make something look cool with action, music, production design. All that is secondary to him. He always focuses on the drama, the emotions, and the internal conflicts of the characters.”

President Donald Trump's decision to impose a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States is set to deal a heavy blow to the US revenues of Indian films and their distributors, industry experts said.

Distributors may be forced to raise ticket prices in the US to pass on part of the tariff, which could dent footfalls and erode their revenue share estimates, they said. "To the best of my knowledge, Hollywood derives 60% of its revenues from the rest of the world. This shows the irony of the situation. I think this tariff is likely to impact the last mile consumer a lot," said Pranab Kapadia, director at overseas distribution firm Moviegoers Entertainment.

"The impact of tariff is high ticket prices, which will lower the revenue share of distributors of Indian films, thereby hurting the overall box office potential of Indian films," he added.

Kapadia is known for distributing films of Karan Johar's production house Dharma Productions in the overseas markets.

According to distributors and producers, Hindi films earn 40-60% of their total overseas collection from the US markets. In fact, this year's biggest Hindi blockbuster Saiyaara collected more than $6 million, or about Rs 53 crore, from the North American market itself, making it the third biggest grosser Indian film in the US.

A key concern among distributors is the short window films have in theatres before they get released on streaming platforms. This may make many viewers wait for the OTT release rather than pay much more for watching the film in a theatre, they said.

"Today, there is such a short window between a film which gets released in theatres and then its showcasing on streaming platforms. In this context, a tariff of 100% makes it even more challenging for distributors to bring footfalls in theatres, especially when they must resort to hiking ticket prices to compensate for the tariff," a veteran distributor said on the condition of anonymity.

Producers of mid-and-small-sized films may choose to release their films only on streaming platforms in the US as it may be economically unviable to release them in theatres with high-ticket prices.

"A 100% tariff could wipe out 40% of Indian films' US revenues, but the deeper worry is the audience fallout. With ticket prices soaring to $20, many diaspora families may abandon theatres," said Suniel Wadhwa, cofounder and director of Karmic Films. "This is not just a tariff. It is a cultural barrier. Cinema is India's strongest soft power export to the world," he added.

Big tent-pole Hindi films may still get released in the US markets with high ticket prices.

The importance of the US market for Indian films can be gauged from the size of the Indian diaspora. According to the data from Pew Research Centre, the population of the Indian diaspora in the US is about 5.2 million, reflecting strong business potential for Indian producers especially when seen in the light of revenues in dollar denomination.

Some producers said they are yet not clear about the implications of the tariff.

"I am not clear about what the tariff announcement means. I will have to see the final order to understand the future implications of this tariff," said Shobu Yarlagadda, who produced Telugu film Baahubali and its sequel, which were a smash hit not only in India but also in the US and elsewhere.

On the whole, producers believe that the tariff has the potential to not only wipe out the box-office potential of Indian films in the US markets but also can force Indian producers to reassess and recalibrate the ways in which they make, distribute and market their films, especially big tentpole ones.

Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, who stirred up a storm after he called S S Rajamouli’s magnum opus RRR a “gay love story”, has been slammed for his remark by Shobu Yarlagadda, who produced Rajamouli’s two-part epic Baahubali.

It all started when, slamming RRR, actor-writer Munish Bharadwaj tweeted, “Saw 30 minutes of garbage called RRR last night.” Resul Pookutty said, “Gay love story (sic) and @aliaa08 is a prop in that film.”

In response, producer Yarlagadda asked, even if RRR were a gay love story, what’s wrong with it? “I don’t think @RRRMovie is a gay love story as you say but even if it was, is ‘gay love story’ a bad thing? How can you justify using this? Extremely disappointed that someone of your accomplishments can stoop so low! (sic),” he wrote.

In his defence, Pookutty said that he merely quoted an article which described RRR as that. “There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I merely quoted my friend, the banter that already exists in the public domain and nothing else. There is no stooping factor in this. You don’t have to take it seriously, Shobu. I didn’t mean any offence to any stakeholders. I rest my case here!” said Pookutty.

On Monday, S S Rajamouli announced that his magnum opus RRR, starring Ram Charan, NT Rama Rao Jr and Ajay Devgn, will hit theatres on October 13. Boney Kapoor is seeing red at the decision - after all, his sports drama Maidaan, starring Devgn, had already booked the Dussehra weekend.

“We had announced last year that Maidaan will release on Dussehra. Despite knowing this, Rajamouli lined up his film for the same [weekend]. This, when Ajay requested him and RRR producer [DVV Danayya] to talk to me about the release dates,” exclaims Kapoor.

The producer adds that the makers had kept Devgn in the dark about their release plan. “They informed Ajay only a day before they made the announcement. [In clashing with my film], you are disrespecting not only me, but also Ajay who has graciously been a part of your movie. When I called Rajamouli, he said it was not his call but his producers’ and distributors’. Having made 40 films, I can tell you that no distributor can [dictate terms] to a producer.”

Kapoor reveals that Rajamouli and he have been on bad terms since the Baahubali days. The South filmmaker had approached Sridevi for Sivagami’s role in the 2015 blockbuster. “Producer Shobu Yarlagadda had offered her a fee that was less than what she had got for English Vinglish [2012]. So, we let the film pass. But after Baahubali’s release, Rajamouli said that Sridevi’s unprofessional approach was the reason [for her exit]. He claimed that she demanded an entire floor to herself, and wanted a huge entourage. Sridevi clarified later that esteemed filmmakers, including Kamal Haasan and K Raghavendra Rao, wouldn’t have worked with her if she was so unprofessional.”

Ask him if their history has any bearing on the current scenario, and the filmmaker says, "Your guess is as good as mine. All I can say is it's unprofessional of them to do this."

Just when the officials from the I&B ministry were planning to make Baahubali series the Make In India mascot to promote Indian cinema abroad, the pirate bay was busy doing what it does best. The film was leaked online just a day after I&B minister Venkaiah Naidu called it a shining example of Make In India.

The very next day, the 'example', it seems, was available online for everyone to watch. People took to social media and posted the link to the film and those who really wanted to know the answer to “Katappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara?“ relished the pirated version.

A viewer in Kuwait allegedly streamed the movie live on Facebook for nearly an hour before it was released. Before this, an unedited battle scene was also leaked online. The producer of the series, Shobu Yarlagadda, in an attempt to clear the air, tweeted, “Except for screening to various censor boards in different countries, there have been no screenings of @BaahubaliMovie2 till now anywhere.“ We spoke to exhibitors for their take on this.

The film is celebrating a record run at the box office and the exhibitors say that the pirated version might not affect the box office since it is dubbed and not in HD. Yogesh Raizada, the corporate head of a cinema chain, says, “It's indeed sad when a film like Baahubali is leaked online. When production houses with such huge budgets are not able to stop their films from being leaked, how can small budget films be saved? The silver lining here is that it is not an HD version, so it will not deter people from coming to cinema halls. At least we hope so.“

Tinku Singh, the group president and chief strategy officer of another cinema chain, believes, “Leaks don't shock anymore. All the big-budget films including Udta Punjab, Dangal, and Sultan were leaked online. Although Baahubali: The Conclusion has done well, the business will be affected in single screens.“

So far, no one knows when action will be initiated against the pirates. Exhibitors maintain that unless the I&B ministry for mulates stern guidelines to curb piracy with the help of the police, incidents like this will continue to plague the industry. Leaked prints of films will find their way online either before or right after release, while the culprits will go free.

CO-PRODUCER SPEAKS UP ...
Prasad Devineni, one of the producers of Baahubali: The Conclusion, says that there are various versions of the film, which have been released, the original print, however, hasn't found its way online. He says, “The various versions that you see online are camera prints and screen grabs. The full version has not been leaked. We have close to 100 people in Andhra Pradesh working constantly on pulling down any such prints of the film as and when they appear online. We have taken another step by creating and streaming dummy torrents that confuse downloaders. We are also working closely with the anti-piracy cell which is a part of our film chamber, as well as the Cyber Crime Cell in Andhra Pradesh. They are doing everything to ensure that the leak is controlled. The investigation on source of the online leak is currently on. It is extremely difficult to take legal action against those responsible for these leaks. The servers where they originate are in another country. By the time our government initiates action, the damage will be done. We are doing the next best thing - damage control.“