From Rs 5000 tickets to Chinese dubbed release: Must know facts about SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali

Baahubali. Please do not mistake it for the giant Gomateshwar statue at Sravanabelagola in Karnataka. A Google search for Baahubali doesn’t return the links related to the historic statue as the first result. The first one talks about the movie Baahubali. The sculptor, Srisaila Sree Rajamouli, who is inspired by Mahabharat, rendered his idea into a celluloid magnum opus. And hours before it hits the silver screens, he is keeping his fingers crossed, after deleting (or preserving) 40 per cent of the shoot for Baahubali 2.0, the shooting for which commences in September officially. It took three full years or little more for the creator of blockbusters Eega and Magadheera to finish the project. Here are some interesting facts about the movie with actors Prabhas and Rana Daggubati in lead roles. * The cost of the movie is pegged at Rs 132.50 crore. However, the industry analysts estimate it around Rs. 250 crore or USD 40 million, easily making it one of the biggest movies in the country.

* As much as 110 acres of space in Ramoji Film City was used for putting up the extravagant sets and most part of the film was shot there only. The movie crew personally participated in raising a jowar crop in 20 acres in the Film City, exclusively for the movie, passing through the rough and tumble of tilling for six months.

* The movie is being released in four Indian languages simultaneously – Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. And, it will be released in Chinese and Japanese in a couple of months.

* The visual treat involves the efforts of 17 VFX companies, 600 VFX artists, and 25 national award winners, including the top-notch technicians like Keeravani (music), Sabu Cyril, Srinvas Mohan, who worked for projects such as Ra.One, Krish 3 and Robot.

* A 125-foot-tall statue of Bhallaldeva (the role played by Rana) was made by 200 sculptors and it weighed over 8,000 kg. Rana gained 32 kg for the movie and he had to change his food habits completely for that.

* Baahubali was shot for 383 days and the shooting began 784 days ago on 6 July, 2013 at a village in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.

* As many as 20,000 weapons, swords, and armours, were prepared for use in the movie, which were totted by over 2,000 junior artistes during the war scenes in the shooting.

* The tickets were touted to have been sold anywhere between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 5,000 each in the black market.

The producers Shobhu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni partnered Karan Johar’s Dharma Films (for Hindi), Studio Green’s KE Gnanavel Raja (Tamil); Global United Media (Malayalam) and Blue Sky Cinemas of the US for overseas release. Movie analyst Y Sunita Chowdary told Firstpost that Baahubali is a director’s movie and Rajamouli has the knack of carrying the audience to an emotional peak through the movie. This movie is sure to break the traditions and will pave way for fresh thinking and Telugu cinema will soon bid adieu to the stereotypical formula stories.