Shobu Yarlagadda: 'Rajamouli wanted some more time for Baahubali 2'

It was unsettling. Of course, there was a lot of financial deficit and substantial risks involved. We knew the film was good, but in Telugu territories, there was some disappointment in the morning shows. But we had a good response in the Mumbai screening. By evening, things had settled down, and by Sunday, we knew it would have a good run. 

It was primarily because Baahubali completed 10 years in 2025, and we wanted to celebrate the landmark in some way.

When both the Baahubali films were released, in 2015 and 2017, the streaming business wasn’t big yet. It gained prominence only post-COVID. In 2022, RRR went deep into American pop culture. There were many who discovered RRR but are not aware of Rajamouli’s earlier films.

For our US distribution, we are working with Variance Films, who also handled RRR during its encore release. On the 29th, there will be 100 premiere shows. Starting from October 31, there will be screenings at 400 locations. We are doing some promotions, trying to attract sections of people who liked RRR. 

The main challenge was editing both stories into one cohesive storyline. Rajamouli and editor Tammiraju worked on it for 4-6 months. Later, we held multiple screenings to see if it was flowing, because the runtime was also crucial. Then we had to edit the music, smoothen it out in mixing, recreating the whole sound. KK Senthil Kumar spent 5-6 weeks grading the frames. Add to that the multiple formats and ratios, multiple languages. It was a one-year process. 

Multiple songs worked when it was two films. However, when it’s a single feature, you don’t need as many songs. Some hard calls had to be taken. 

Yes, we originally began this plan as a two-part re-release. But earlier this year, Rajamouli suggested that we should think of this as a one-part film.

Everyone had their opinions. There were a lot of people who said, ‘You are spending way too much,’ or that there is no market for this kind of film. But we were already halfway into it, so we just went with the flow. 

It was always completely collaborative. There were no differences, only discussions, after which we would arrive at a solution that works for everyone. Rajamouli wanted to push the release of Baahubali 2 because he was worried about CGI and wanted more time. But I told him we need to stick to the date. Otherwise, there was nothing to disagree about.  

The idea was that we didn’t want to compromise on certain things. We wanted to get the nativity right, so we thought reshooting was a better choice. Even on a technical level, we knew we wanted to shoot in full frame, even if it meant extra time and effort. It was only after Baahubali that Dolby Atmos became popular. We just wanted to set a high bar and follow it. 

The Tamil market reception was good from the word go. We cast a lot of prominent Tamil artists like Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishnan, and Nasser. Tamil dialogues were especially appreciated a lot, and that was one of the priorities. We didn’t want Baahubali to look like a dubbed film, so a lot of care was taken for dialogues, pronunciation, and dubbing. Earlier, dubbed films had standard routine voices, but for the Hindi version, many people couldn’t tell if it was Prabhas or a dubbing artist.

Honestly, we were not trying to consciously make bigger films. Those films require a lot of things to fall in place. We wanted to step back and focus on the Baahubali spinoff series, or on movies where we really liked the storyline. Then COVID happened, and the series setback happened. But now we are back with a few films. 

It was the early days of web series. The way it was conceived, obviously, it couldn’t be on a movie-like scale; it was more focused on drama and emotion. Once we shot it and readied it for delivery, Netflix had a management change that had a different vision. They said they need to relook at it. Ultimately, we couldn’t reach a point where everyone liked it, so it was put on the back burner. 

(Laughs) I feel different films have different styles and need varying treatment. It’s not always about how big your film is, but the way the stories are told. 

Multiplexes were coming up then, and so were films like Mr and Mrs Iyer. K Raghavendra Rao’s son Prakash set this up with Mahesh Dattani, who wrote and directed it. We got Rajiv Menon as the cinematographer. It was very well received among music lovers, but it was probably too early for such a niche film, even for those times. 

I feel that movie-going has to be a communal experience. There has to be either a ‘wow’ factor or something you enjoy in larger groups. Besides larger-than-life movies, comedies and horror films work better this way, too, where the collective energy adds to it. Whereas the intimate, slice-of-life dramas you can enjoy even on an individual basis. Even a light-hearted film or a high-concept film can still draw an audience. There is a line there determining what people will, or want to, enjoy in theatres.

Of course, the two films with Fahadh Faasil are happening. We have a series in production with Prime Video. There’s another Tamil film, which we will soon announce. 

Eega. It’s a great story, emotionally strong. To get emotion from a fly, to get Sudeep to react to an unknown small thing... the whole concept is novel and difficult to pull off. It’s very challenging, the genre itself.