A crossover that no one expected: Avatar and Titanic filmmaker James Cameron and Baahubali director SS Rajamouli. The acclaimed filmmaker has been at Paris, France on a promotional spree, treating French audiences to dubbed versions of Eega, Baahubali and RRR, when he opened up about meeting the mutiple Oscar-winning director.
Speaking at the iconic Grand Rex theater in Paris where he hosted a masterclass to the audiences, Rajamouli shared, "I met James Cameron in the US. I was so starry-eyed just looking at him. He was talking about how he watched RRR twice. He was talking about how good the film was. I think my mind shut off somewhere because I was looking at him with awe. We also talked about AI, a topic that scares me. He said AI will never replace filmmaking, which I found reassuring."
In the event's Q and A session, Rajamouli also addressed the story behind Eega, dismissing speculations about the film drawing inspiration from Toy Story.
He said the Grand Rex is the "most beautiful theater in the world" and explained how art transcends boundaries to bring people together. "Art is one of the strongest mediums to bring people together. I’m an Indian filmmaker who speaks telugu language and I don’t know a lot about French culture… and yet all these people are here to see my film. It is beautiful," he said.
During the screenings, Rajamouli's films were met with massive applause from audiences, with key scenes of the crowd reacting going viral on social media. Audience members also lined up to get Rajamouli's autographs after the screenings.
Rajamouli was in France to present Baahubali: The Eternal War at Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Selected under the Work in Progress segment at Annecy, the film becomes one of the very few Indian animated projects to be showcased on this prestigious platform.
For the unversed, RRR (2022) starred Jr NTR and Ram Charan in leading roles and was a massive blockbuster hit in theatres. The film was met with critical and commercial reception across the world as well and the song 'Naatu Naatu' won the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards. Rajamouli is currently working on Varanasi with Mahesh Babu, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles.
