Baahubali: The Beginning


Baahubali: The Beginning is a 2015 Indian epic action film directed by S.S Rajamouli. The film was produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni and was shot in both Telugu and Tamil. This film was also dubbed into Malayalam and Hindi. The film stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, and Tamannaah in the lead roles, with Ramya Krishna, Sathyaraj, and Nassar in supporting roles. The first of two cinematic parts, the film follows Shivudu / Shiva, an adventurous young man who helps his love Avanthika rescue Devasena, the former queen of Mahishmati who is now a prisoner under the tyrannical rule of king Bhallaladeva. The story concludes in .
The film was conceived by Rajamouli's father K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who randomly told him a story about Sivagami, a woman who carries a baby in her hand while crossing a river, and a few years later about Kattappa, which intrigued Rajamouli. His fascination with mythology and the tales of the Amar Chitra Katha comics further fuelled his interest in the story. However, it took the writers three months to complete the final draft. The and background score were composed by M. M. Keeravani while the cinematography, production design, and VFX were handled by K. K. Senthil Kumar, Sabu Cyril and V. Srinivas Mohan respectively.
The film was made on a budget of, making it the most expensive Indian film at its time of release. The film opened worldwide on 10 July 2015, garnering critical acclaim and record-breaking box office success. With a worldwide box office gross of, it became the highest-grossing film in India, third highest-grossing Indian film worldwide, and highest-grossing South Indian film, at the time of its release. Its Hindi dubbed version also broke several records by becoming the highest-grossing dubbed film in India. Both budget and box office records have since been surpassed by Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, the second highest grossing Indian film of all time.
It received. It won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects and Best Feature Film, becoming the first Telugu film to win the award. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards South, the Telugu version won five awards from ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Rajamouli and Best Supporting Actress for Ramya Krishna respectively. Baahubali: The Beginning became the first Indian film to be nominated for Saturn Awards, receiving five nominations at the 42nd ceremony, including Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

In the ancient Kingdom of Mahishmati in India, Sivagami, the queen, emerges from a cave adjoining a big waterfall, carrying a baby. She kills the soldiers pursuing her and sacrifices herself to save the baby. Local villagers spot the queen carrying the baby while almost drowning in the river and rescue the infant. The queen drowns after pointing towards the mountain above the waterfall. Sanga and her husband name the infant Shivudu / Shiva and raise him as their own son. They seal the cave fearing that someone may come to take away the child.
Shivudu grows up to be a well-built young man aspiring to hike the mountain and makes many unsuccessful attempts at it. It is revealed that he possesses unnatural strength. He then finds a mask of a girl which falls from the waterfall. Driven to find out the identity of the girl, he climbs the mountain again and succeeds this time.
On top of the waterfall, Shivudu discovers that the mask belongs to Avanthika, a rebellious warrior whose group has indulged in a guerrilla warfare against king Bhallala Deva / Pallvalathevan of Mahishmati Kingdom. The group intends to rescue their former queen Devasena / Thevasenai who has been chained in the kingdom for the past 25 years. Avanthika is given the opportunity to rescue the queen.
Avanthika falls in love with Shivudu after she finds out that he has climbed the waterfall for her. Shivudu pledges to help her in her mission and sneaks into Mahishmati to rescue Devasena. Shivudu rescues her and flees along with her but is chased down by the king's Royal slave Kattappa, known for his great warrior abilities. After Shivudu beheads Bhadra, Bhalla Deva's son, Kattappa drops his weapons on realizing that Shivudu is Mahendra Baahubali, the son of late king Amarendra Baahubali.
A flashback reveals Amarendra Bahubali's past. Amarendra's mother died while giving him birth, while his father had died much before that. Sivagami takes charge of running the kingdom with Kattapa's assistance until a new king is elected. Amarendra Bahubali and Bhallala Deva are brought up together, trained in all areas including arts, science, disguise, politics and warfare, but both of them have different approaches towards kingship. Amarendra Baahubali is liberal to everyone but Bhallala Deva is violent and achieves his goals with any means possible.
When a war is forced upon Mahishmati by the Kalakeyas, Sivagami promises that the new king will be the one who beheads the Kalakeya king and orders that the war resources be distributed equally between the two cousins. Bijjala deva, Bhalla Deva's father, uses his cunningness to make sure Bhalladeva gets the maximum war fare. When it seems that Mahishmati would end up being defeated, Amarendra inspires his soldiers to fight death and they end up crushing the enemy. Despite Bhalla Deva being the one to kill the Kalakeya king, Sivagami announces Amarendra Baahubali as the new emperor because of his nobility and leadership in the war.
After the flashback, when asked about Amarendra's current whereabouts, a tearful Katappa reveals that the King is dead, and the killer is none other than Katappa.

Cast

Credited

The following is the credited cast:
Baahubali: The Beginning was produced in Tollywood, the centre of Telugu language films in India and was filmed in both Telugu and Tamil languages simultaneously., the film series was considered the most expensive in India.

Development

Director S. S. Rajamouli revealed that Baahubali is inspired by the epic Mahabharata. K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, the storywriter of Baahubali: The Beginning had revealed that he was inspired by the hero introduction sequence of the 1967 Kannnada film, Immadi Pulikeshi, based on the life of the Chalukya king, Pulakeshin II and hence incorporated a similar sequence. The director first choice was Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha and Tamannah. He had further revealed that the core storyline – where one brother is not given the throne because of his disability, leading to animosity between blood relatives – was also partly inspired by this movie. In February 2011, S. S. Rajamouli announced that Prabhas would star in his upcoming movie. In January 2013, he announced that the working title was Baahubali. Actual film production started at Rock Gardens in Kurnool on 6 July 2013. The waterfall scenes were shot at Athirappilly Falls in Kerala, huge sets for the Mahishmati kingdom were constructed at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, and the snow episodes in the film were shot in Bulgaria. The screen writer, K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who wrote stories for most of Rajamouli's films, once again penned the story for Baahubali. The film boasts of one year pre-production work wherein 15,000 storyboard sketches for the film were created—the highest for any Indian Film as of this date. More than 90 percent of the film had visually enhanced shots and, according to the producer, more than 600 VFX artists worked for the film from 18 facilities around the world led by Makuta VFX and Firefly in Hyderabad, Prasad Studios in Hyderabad and Chennai, Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad, Tau Films, and Dancing Digital Animation and Macrograph in South Korea. Makuta VFX which had prior experience of working with S.S.Rajamouli was chosen as principal visual effects studio. The cinematography of the movie was done by KK Senthil Kumar for 380 days using Arri Alexa XT camera with Master Prime lens. This marked Rajamouli's first film using digital imagery.
Most of the film was shot in ArriRaw format in 4:3 aspect ratio while ArriRaw 16.9 was used for slow motion shots at 120 fps. Open Gate format, which can use the full 3.4K sensor in the camera to produce frames larger than the standard ArriRaw format, was tapped in to get the maximum image quality in VFX shots. Production designer Sabu Cyril created 10,000 different kinds of weaponry including swords, helmets and armour required for the soldiers. To make the swords lightweight, carbon-fibre was used instead of steel. 3D printing technology was used to create the head of the 100-foot Bhallaladeva statue in the movie. Flexi foam was used to make lightweight armour with the look of leather. V. Srinivas Mohan was chosen as visual effects supervisor, and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao was the editor. P. M. Satheesh was the sound designer and Peter Hein was responsible for the action sequences. The costume designers were Rama Rajamouli and Prasanthi Tipirneni. The line producer was M. M. Srivalli.

Visual effects

National Award winner V. Srinivas Mohan was roped in as Visual effects supervisor for Baahubali. Makuta VFX which is based out of Hyderabad was chosen as principal visual effects studio and was responsible for more than 50% of the computer-generated imagery in the film. The majority of work done by Makuta involved bringing the 1500 foot waterfall to life, creating mountains and landscapes including the kingdom of Mahishmati, with its massive temples and courtyards. Creating the waterfall took nearly two years as Makuta dealt with complexity in fluid dynamics and simulations. Manuka claimed each frame of the waterfall sequence was treated as creating a new set and employed a different set of methodology.
Firefly Creative Studio of Hyderabad worked primarily on the avalanche and the war sequences, which account for nearly 25 minutes of the film. Firefly Creative was also involved in creating underwater VFX shots and in establishing backstories for Kalakeya characters. Tau Films was responsible for creating the CGI bison, while Prasad EFX from Hyderabad was responsible for some shots in pre and post battle episodes involving digital multiplication. Prasad also created a 3D image of Kattappa and mapped his head onto a duplicate actor in one of the scenes.
Srushti VFX from Hyderabad was involved in digitally creating some of the shots in the war sequence along with Firefly Studios. Annapurna Studios from Hyderabad was chosen as digital intermediate partner for the film which is responsible for generating the digital feed with the best colour and audio for editing. For the first time in Indian movies, Academy Color Encoding System workflows were implemented along with Infinitely Scalable Information Storage keeping in mind the scale of digitally enhanced shots in the film. Arka Media Works, production company of Baahubali, teamed up with AMD to use the state of the art FirePro GPUs W9100 and W8100 during post production.
In an interview with Quartz, the co-founder of Makuta VFX stated, "Most of Baahubali was developed in Hyderabad, home to Tollywood, and used local talent. It was principally a homegrown feature produced by homegrown talent."

Kiliki language

The fictional language Kiliki spoken by the Kalakeyas, a ferocious warrior tribe, was created by Madhan Karky for the film. It is said to be the first fictional language to be created for Indian film.
While Karky was pursuing a PhD in Australia, he took up a part-time job of teaching and baby-sitting children. During one such interaction, he thought it would be fun to create a new language that could be easily grasped. Basic words were first made up and opposites were represented by word reversals – me was min and you was nim. The language, with 100 words, was called "Click" to highlight its simplicity. This formed the foundation for Kiliki.
On 21 February 2020, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, Rajamouli launched the official website of Kiliki language. He called the language as "world’s youngest and easiest language."

Music

Rajamouli's cousin M. M. Keeravani composed the music and background score for this film and the sound supervision was done by Kalyan Koduri. The Telugu version of the soundtrack album was released on 31 May 2015, at the Sri Venkateswara University Grounds. The album of the film's Tamil version was released on 7 June 2015, while the soundtrack of the Hindi and Malayalam versions, were released on 21 June and 1 July respectively.

Release

The release of The Beginning was postponed many times for several reasons.

Screenings and statistics

The film was released on 10 July 2015 in 4,000 screens worldwide in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam languages. A record number of 1600 screens in Telugu, 1500 screens in Hindi, 350 in Tamil and 225 screens in Malayalam were booked for the release. The film was released in the USA a day earlier by BlueSky Cinemas in 135 screens. A premier show was also held on 9 July at Prasads IMAX Hyderabad. The film's release in Kerala was hindered by the shutdown of a number of theatres due to the piracy issue of the Malayalm film Premam and released in only a few theatres. The international version of the film was screened at Busan International Film Festival. Producers announced plans to release the film in China in November 2015 by E Stars Films. The producer, Shobu Yarlagadda, revealed his plans to release the movie in Latin America, Germany and European countries. Arka International made arrangements to release the movie in Germany and 70 other territories.
As the sequel was released on 28 April 2017, the producers and distributors re-released the first part on 7 April 2017. The film was screened at various film festivals like Open Cinema Strand of Busan International Film Festival, Indian Film Festival The Hague, Sitges Film Festival in Spain, Utopiales Film Festival in France, Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, :fr:L'Étrange Festival|L'Etrange International Film Festival in Paris, Five Flavours Film Festival in Poland, Hawaii International Film Festival in Honolulu, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in Brussels, Belgium, Cannes Film Festival in France, Transilvania International Film Festival in Romania, Le Grand Rex in Paris, Kurja Polt Horror Film Festival, Festival de Lacamo, 8th BRICS summit, and the 2016 Indian Panorama section of the International Film Festival of India, Goa. The international version of the film was released in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and some European and Latin American countries.

Marketing

The movie was marketed by a Mumbai-based company named Spice PR owned by Prabhat Choudhary. The popular statement 'Kattappa ne Baahubali ko kyun maara?' was also coined by Prabhat Choudhary. Marketing of the film started two years before the shoot by S. S. Rajamouli with the audition campaign in Facebook and YouTube. A number of short promotional making-of videos were released on ArkaMediaworks YouTube channel and the team unveiled first look posters and videos featuring the film's lead stars on the occasions of their birthdays. The film used an augmented reality application to play the trailer on smart phones and tablets. The crown used by the character of Baahubali in the film was exhibited at Comic Con, Hyderabad, as a part of the film's promotion. A cosplay event was held in which chosen winners were given a chance to visit the sets of the film. The film's unit also launched a WhatsApp messenger to give regular updates about the film to the subscribers. On 22 July 2015, Guinness World Records approved the poster created during the audio launch of Baahubali in Kochi on 1 July 2015 as the world's largest poster. The poster has an area of 4,793.65 m² and it was created by Global United Media Company Pvt Ltd. This record was later broken by a 5,969.61 m² poster for the film MSG-2 The Messenger.
Producers announced plans to create a film museum at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad to showcase the weapons, armour, and costumes used by actors in the film. The museum would be the first of its kind for any Indian movie. The film's website hosts merchandise which includes apparel, accessories, and film collectibles.

Distribution

In early July 2014, for the first part of the film, the region distribution rights for Karnataka and Ceded were sold to a distributor for. At the same time, The film's Nizam region theatrical distribution rights were purchased by Dil Raju for. Though he did not confirm the price, Dil Raju said in an interview to Deccan Chronicle that he purchased the first part's Nizam region rights and added that he would acquire the rights of the second part also for this region. BlueSky Cinemas, Inc. acquired the theatrical screening and distribution rights in United States and Canada.
The Telugu version of the film was presented by K. Raghavendra Rao, Tamil version by K.E. Gnanavel Raja, Sri Thenandal Films and UV Creations, Karan Johar presented the Hindi version and Global United Media presented the Malayalam theatrical version. Twin Co, an international film distributor in Japan, acquired the screening rights. MVP Entertainment is set to release the movie in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste countries. Sun Distribution acquired the distribution rights of the movie in Latin American countries while Creative Century Entertainment got the rights for Taiwan. In Korea, the movie is scheduled to be released via Entermode Corp.

Controversy

The Tamil version of the film faced a controversy relating to a word used in the film. On 22 July 2015, activists of Dalit group Puratchi Pulikal Iyakkam hurled petrol bombs outside the 'Tamil, Jaya' multiplex in Madurai screening the Tamil version of the film. The Dalit group Puratchi Pulikal Iyakkam protested against the movie over the inclusion of the word ‘pagadai’. Members of the group claimed the words, used by caste Hindus to address members of the Arunthathiyar Dalit sub-caste, are considered derogatory against Dalits. Dialogue writer of Tamil version, Madhan Karky issued an apology for offending Dalits.

Reception

Box office

Baahubali: The Beginning on the first day of its release collected worldwide which was the highest opening ever for an Indian film until Kabali surpassed it in 2016 by earning. The film collected from the United States on its first day. First weekend collections stood around worldwide from all its versions, the third biggest ever for an Indian film. The film grossed around worldwide in the first week of its release. It became the first South Indian film to gross worldwide, reaching there in 9 days, and subsequently grossed worldwide in 15 days. And has successfully crossed mark in 24 days. By the end of 50 days, International Business Times estimated that the film grossed an approximate crore worldwide. International Business Times later reported that overall collections of the film stood at over worldwide as of 2017. Baahubali: The Beginning netted 4.18 billion in India. Firstpost later reported that the total collections stood at 6.50 billion as of 2017. Baahubali: The Beginning grossed in all languages in India alone, and became the highest-grossing movie in India, surpassing PKs gross of from India.
The Beginning opened to 100 percent occupancy in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and close to 70 percent occupancy in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. It grossed around on its first day of release in India from all four versions. The Hindi version earned around nett which was the highest opening for any film dubbed into Hindi. Baahubali grossed on the first day in India. The Hindi version grossed around nett in the first weekend.
The Telugu version alone earned around nett in first weekend in India. The film, from all its versions, earned almost nett in its first weekend. It had the fourth biggest opening weekend ever in India. The Hindi version collected around nett in its first week. Baahubali: The Beginning grossed more than nett from all its versions in India in the first week. It added a further nett in its second weekend to take its total to around nett in ten days. The Hindi version grossed over nett in the Mumbai circuit.
The film collected around in its first day from the international markets. The film opened on the ninth spot for its weekend, collecting around US$3.5 million with a per-screen average of $15,148. The film debuted in the ninth position for the US and Canadian box office collecting $4,630,000 for three days and $3,250,000 for the weekend of 10–12 July 2015. Baahubali: The Beginning grossed £66,659 from its Telugu version in United Kingdom and Ireland and A$194,405 from its Tamil version in Australia in until its second weekend. The film also grossed MYR 663,869 in Malaysia from its Tamil version. The film grossed on its opening weekend in China. It has grossed a total of in the country. The film totally earned $10.94 million at the overseas box office.

Critical response

India

Deepanjana Pal of Firstpost called it "Rajamouli's tour de force," terming it as "elaborate, well-choreographed and some breathtaking moments." Prabhas and Dagubatti are both in their elements as the warriors who approach warfare in two distinctive styles. The outcome of the battle is no surprise, but there are enough clever tactics and twists to keep the audience hooked. The biggest surprise, however, lies in the film's final shot, which gives you a glimpse into the sequel that will come out next year." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV India rated the film with three stars out of five and stated, "The spectacular universe that the film conjures up is filled with magic, but the larger-than-life characters that populate its extraordinary expanse do not belong to any known mythic landscape. To that extent, Baahubali, driven by the titular superhero who pulls off mind-boggling feats both in love and in war, throws up many a surprise that isn't altogether meaningless."
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express praised the film: "Right from its opening frames, Baahubali holds out many promises: of adventure and romance, love and betrayal, valour and weakness. And it delivers magnificently on each of them. This is full-tilt, fully-assured filmmaking of a very high order. Baahubali is simply spectacular." In her review for The Hindu, Sangeetha Devi Dundoo wrote, "The war formations that form a chunk of the latter portions of the film are the best we've seen in Indian cinema so far. These portions are spectacular and show the technical finesse of the cinematographer and the visual effects teams. The waterfall, the mystical forests and water bodies above the cliffs and the lead pair escaping an avalanche all add to the spectacle. Give into its magic, without drawing comparisons to Hollywood flicks."
Sukanya Varma of Rediff gave the film four out of five stars, calling it "mega, ingenious and envelope pushing!" Critic Archita Kashyap based at Koimoi gave the same rating stating, "Be it the war sequences, or sword fighting; or a visual spectacle, or pure entertainment it is worth a watch. Kudos to the dedication of S S Rajamouli and his leading men, Prabhas and Rana, for spending years putting this film together. Actually, in its imagination and Indianness, Baahubali might just be a whole new start." Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave the film four stars and summarised, "Baahubali is truly an epic experience. Had the story not been so jaded, this would've gone into the history books as an all-time classic. But that's not the case. It has its set of storytelling flaws, but even those are overshadowed by Rajamouli's ideas and execution. This is definitely worthy of being India's most expensive film. It's a definite movie watching experience."
Suparna Sharma of Deccan Chronicle praised the second half of the film, writing, "Rajamouli has reserved all the grander and grandstanding for later, after interval. That's when the film stands up and begins to strut like an epic." Suhani Singh of India Today pointed out that the film is best enjoyed keeping logic at bay. She added, "SS Rajamouli and his team put up a fascinating wild, wild east adventure. It takes pluck to conceive a world like the one seen in Baahubali and to pull it off on a level which is on par with the international standards. The almost 45-minute-long battle sequence at the end is not just one of the biggest climaxes, but also the action spectacle rarely seen in Indian cinema. And if Rajamouli can present another one like that in part 2, then he is on course to register his name in cinema's history books. We can't wait to revisit Mahishmati kingdom."
Critical reception penned by Shubha Shetty Saha for Mid Day rates the film with four stars out of five, exclaiming, "While watching Baahubali, you might have to periodically pick up your jaw off the floor. Because this is not merely a movie, it is an unbelievably thrilling fantasy ride." The review extends praising the aspects, "It is to the director's credit that every aspect of the film – action, mind-boggling set design and choreography – lives up to this epic film of gigantic scale. The choreography in the song that has Shiva disrobing Avantika to get her in touch with her feminine side, is an absolute gem."

International

Critics praised the film for its direction, technical values, and the actors' performances. Lisa Tsering based on The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "The story has been told many times before – a child is born destined for greatness and as a man vanquishes the forces of evil – but in the confident hands of accomplished South Indian director S.S. Rajamouli the tale gets potent new life in Baahubali: The Beginning." Allan Hunter, writing for Screen Daily noted that "The broad brushstrokes storytelling and the director's over-fondness for slow-motion sequences are among the film's failings but this is still a rousing film, easily accessible epic. There's rarely a dull moment in Baahubali: The Beginning, part one of a gung-ho, crowd-pleasing Telugu-language epic that has been shattering box-office records throughout India."
Mike McCahill of The Guardian rated the film four stars out of five, praising the film, "Rajamouli defers on the latter for now, but his skilful choreography of these elements shucks off any cynicism one might carry into Screen 1: wide-eyed and wondrous, his film could be a blockbuster reboot, or the first blockbuster ever made, a reinvigoration of archetypes that is always entertaining, and often thrilling, to behold." Suprateek Chatterjee of The Huffington Post wrote, "However, all said and done, Baahubali: The Beginning is a remarkable achievement. What Rajamouli has pulled off here, despite its flaws, is nothing short of a miracle, especially when you take into account India's notoriously risk-averse filmmaking environment and when the film ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger, one can't help but applaud his singularly brave vision. As the cliché goes, a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step, but it doesn't really matter if that first step is shaky as long as it lands firmly and confidently."

Accolades

At the 63rd National Film Awards, Baahubali: The Beginning won the Best Feature Film, becoming the first Telugu film to win the award, and Best Special Effects. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards South, the Telugu version won five awards from ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Rajamouli and Best Supporting Actress for Ramya Krishna respectively. Both the Tamil and Telugu versions won several awards in their respective categories, including Best Film, Best Director for Rajamouli, and Best Supporting Actress for Ramya Krishna at the 1st IIFA Utsavam. Baahubali: The Beginning became the first Indian film to be nominated for Saturn Awards, receiving five nominations at the 42nd ceremony, including Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actress for Tamannaah.

Legacy

The Beginning is one of the films featured in BBC's documentary on 100 Years of Indian Cinema directed by Sanjeev Bhaskar. The second part, entitled Baahubali 2: The Conclusion was released worldwide on 28 April 2017.
In 2018, Netflix announced that they had ordered a web television prequel series called.