Filmmaker SS Rajamouli is getting back-to-back recognitions across France. The noted director visited the Lumiere Museum in Lyon, where he was honoured with a plaque on the prestigious Mur des Cineastes after touring the museum and the screening room where his films Eega and RRR were showcased to a full house.
Sharing the happy news on social media, Rajamouli expressed his gratitude, saying, "Visited the Lumière Museum and the screening room where Eega and RRR was screened to a full house in Lyon, France." The filmmaker said Thierry Fremaux, director of the Institut Lumiere and the Cannes Film Festival, introduced him before leading him on a special tour through the street regarded as the birthplace of cinema.
He recalled, "Thierry Fremaux, the director of the Institut Lumière and the Cannes Film Festival, was gracious enough to introduce me. Then he said he had planned a surprise and walked me through the very street where cinema was born. I was already emotional for everything that was happening around me."
He noted that he was overwhelmed after a plaque bearing his name was added to the Mur des Cineastes alongside some of world cinema's most celebrated filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino and Francis Ford Coppola. "I noticed a plate covered with a red cloth. My mind went blank," he wrote.
"I don't even know what to say for the honour of having my name permanently placed on the Mur des Cineastes, along with the greats. Only gratitude. Deeply, deeply humbled," he added, thanking the Institut Lumière for honouring him with a memory that he will "carry for a lifetime."
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.
He is currently working on Varanasi with Mahesh Babu, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Priyanka Chopra in lead roles. He also screened the glimpse of the film there to the audiences. The film, which has been generating immense buzz for its storyline and casting, and the mammoth scale in which it is being made, is set to hit theatres on April 7, 2027.
