RRR is emotionally more hard-hitting than Baahubali

INTERVIEW: S.S. Rajamouli, filmmaker

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

Baahubali director S.S. Rajamouli’s ₹400 crore period drama, RRR—featuring Telugu superstars Jr NTR (N.T. Rama Rao Jr) and Ram Charan in lead roles and Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn in cameo roles— will hit the theatres soon. Set in the early twentieth century, the film explores a fictional tale based on two real-life freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem.

In an interview with THE WEEK, Rajamouli talks about what it takes to make his films universally appealing.

Q/ You have created RRR as an international film in scale and scope. It comes after your ultra-successful Baahubali series. How different will it be this time?

A/ In all my films, I predominantly depend on emotions. People liked Baahubali because of the emotional sequences between the characters; RRR will offer you something very similar. Or, I would say, much more hard-hitting emotions. Budget-wise, it exceeds [Baahubali], not just because we spent more on sequences, but because the cost of production has increased multiple times between these three, four years. RRR will be a visual extravaganza. We are promoting it much more than Baahubali.

Q/ How do you get your actors to do what exactly you want them to do?

A/ The knack comes from the writing. When I develop a character, I will dwell upon it for a long time. I would repeatedly think about the details—how I would enhance the scene, what should be the background score in that scene—and I would start enjoying it as an audience. I would be playing out the sequence in the theatre in my mind.