POST-independence, India’s multilingual cinema began probing the world market. Among the early ones, Mehboob Khan’s Aan (Pride, 1952) had a lavish London premier. Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (Tramp, 1951) began a cult in erstwhile Soviet Union. Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Road) and other films in Bengali won India Europe’s critical recognition.
Japan’s Nippon Film Corporation that dubbed Tamil film Chandralekha (1948) as “Shakunetsu-no ketto”, projected director S. S. Vasan as the “Cecil B. DeMille of India” — long before Rajinikanth became popular. Then, short of hard currency, Indian films sold by barter.
Today, Mumbai-based Bollywood, making mainly Hindi language films and fastest in tapping the world market, mints billions. But, a southern Indian film has just surpassed it. Films in Telugu, made in Hyderabad, are more in numbers than Hindi, more expensive and grander.
Bahubali — The Beginning made in Telugu and Tamil, and also dubbed in Malayalam and Hindi, has just taken a bow at the global box office. Touted to cost a whopping US$39 million (RM152.4 million) (the biggest in India, though not Hollywood), it earned a record 600 million rupees (RM39.1 million) on the very first day from the domestic market. Grossing three billion rupees in the first nine days’ of screening, it has broken records previously held by Rajinikanth-starrer Robot with 22 million rupees, and Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam with 19 million rupees. Overseas, it collected US$3.1 million on the opening day, including US$1.2 million in the United States and Canada. The first weekend’s earnings were US$4.5 million. Of the 236 theatres across North America, 170 showed the Telugu version — a record of foreign screening in that language. With stunning visuals compensating for any language limitations (South Indian films are verbose), viewers are also not complaining about the 158-minute running time. With a reported 9.4 IMDb (Internet Movie Database) rating, Bahubali is the highest-rated Indian film on the site, beating two others, 3 Idiots and Lagaan.
A lot is stunning and gigantic about it — the cost, beautiful visuals, the stunts, the war scenes, the release in four languages and 4,000 screens daily across India. A 4,738 sq m promotional poster is billed as the world’s largest. This comic book tale is about two cousins played by Prabhas — the good guy, and Rana Dagubati — the villain. Both play double roles as their respective fathers, who are vying for the mythical Mahishmati kingdom. Served up in the Lord of The Rings mould, the film does give a feeling of déjà vu, reminding of classics from Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments to Troy, Thor and Gerard Butler’s 300. Bahubali had a year’s pre-production preparations. It took over 500 days to shoot at 17 VFX (visual effects) studios in India, China and South Korea. A battle sequence featured 2,000 junior artistes.
A long waterfall sequence was filmed for 109 days. Elaborate war scenes, one of the film’s unique selling point, were filmed in Bulgaria. S. S. Rajamouli is Bahubali’s writer-director. India’s mythological films usually tap into Mahabharata or Ramayana, but this is different. “My father narrated these characters to me a decade ago. I found them very interesting,” said Rajamouli, 41, who took three years infusing flesh and blood into them. He has married the traditional Indian film template with state-of-the-art special effects. The triumph-of-good-over-evil theme strikes a chord with Indian movie-goers, but it is also universal. “The success of Bahubali proves my theory right. Audiences are always open to an interesting story. In our childhood, we used to read the Arabian Nights; why were we so interested when it happens somewhere in Arabia, in a different culture?” Rajamouli has won several national film awards.
Some of his Telugu films have been re-made into Hindi, Bengali and southern Indian languages. His Eega (2010), with a fly as the protagonist, was an acclaimed mythological fiction. A superstar director in the South, he was largely unknown outside till Bahubali hit the screens. He has consistently broken new ground, but Bahubali is his biggest undertaking to date. It has huge statues that are inspired by the Colossus of Rhodes, the Greek-titan God of the Sun, constructed to celebrate Rhodes’ victory over the ruler of Cyprus. There are some incredibly well-mounted scenes and eye-catching imagery — the child Shiva held above the water by the wounded mother figure Sivagami, the hero Shiva’s ride up the waterfall, his romance with Avantika in the midst of the butterflies and the eye-popping battle scenes. But cliches abound: for the hero, the warrior woman has to shed her armour, bare her svelte midriff and transform into a sultry seductress. The enemy is brutish, speaking an incomprehensible tongue. Most characters remain uni-dimensional. Yet, for a war epic, women characters are strong, virtuous and, of course, pretty. Though this swashbuckling adventure relies heavily on CGI and VFX (computer generated imagery and visual effects) — techniques developed indigenously — it has strong emotional resonance. It is much more than a blood-soaked romp.
Rajamouli’s artistes have made brief forays into Hindi cinema, but they remain embedded in the Telugu stream. Like him, they are barely known outside of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the twin states where the language is spoken, besides Chennai, the older, Tamil cinema hub. Reports have it that Rajamouli wanted Bollywood hunks Hrithik Roshan and John Abraham, but they were busy. In making a film targeting pan-India and even foreign audiences with unknown faces he has surely displayed courage and confidence. His team keeps the audiences engaged and spellbound. It shows that film-goers anywhere are keen on well-written themes, well presented and well-enacted — stars or no stars. Bahubali’s Hindi version is being distributed by filmmaker Karan Johar, giving the film a global backup.
Never hesitating to emulate Hollywood, or any other “wood”, Bollywood is watching.
As the title says, this is “The Beginning”. Part 2 is a year away. Rajamouli promises that it will make Part 1 “look small”. He may have set the trend for more mythological films.
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