Baahubali: The Beginning

Theatrical release poster in Telugu

***Baahubali: The Beginning*** is a 2015 Indian epic action film co-written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli, and produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni under Arka Media Works. The film was produced in Tollywood, the centre of Telugu language films in India and was filmed in both Telugu and Tamil languages simultaneously. The film features an ensemble cast including Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Ramya Krishna, Sathyaraj, and Nassar. The first of two cinematic parts, the film follows Sivudu, an adventurous young man who helps his love Avantika rescue Devasena, the former queen of Mahishmati who is now a prisoner under the tyrannical rule of king Bhallaladeva. The story concludes in *Baahubali 2: The Conclusion.*

The film's story was written by Rajamouli's father 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 *Mahabharata* and the tales of *Amar Chitra Katha* and *Chandamama* further fuelled his interest in the story. However, it took the writers three months to complete the final draft. The soundtrack 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 Template:INR180 crore ($28 million), making it the most expensive Indian film at its time of release. The film opened worldwide on 10 July 2015 along with the dubbed versions in Hindi and Malayalam. It received universal acclaim for Rajamouli's direction, the story, visuals, cinematography, action sequences, music, and performances, and became a record-breaking box office success. With a worldwide box office gross of ₹600–650 crore ($93–101 million) it became the 5th highest-grossing film in India, 9th highest-grossing Indian film worldwide, and 3rd highest-grossing South Indian film. Its Hindi dubbed version also broke several records by becoming the highest-grossing dubbed film in Hindi of all time. Both budget and box office records have since been surpassed by *Baahubali 2: The Conclusion*, the highest grossing film of all time in India.

It received several accolades. It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film and became the first Telugu film to win the award. It also won the National Award for 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. *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

Near the ancient Indian kingdom of Mahishmati, an injured woman named Sivagami exits a cave underneath a mountain waterfall, carrying an infant. She kills two soldiers pursuing her and attempts to cross a raging river, but slips and is washed away in the current. Before drowning, she holds the baby aloft and prays to Lord Siva, explaining that she doesn't care about her life and wishes that the baby, Mahendra Baahubali must live. The child is saved by the people of the local Amburi tribe, who reside near the river and worship Lord Siva. The wife of the tribe's chieftain, Sanga, decides to adopt the boy and names him Sivudu.

Sivudu grows up to be an ambitious and mischievous child, obsessed with ascending the mountain. Despite Sanga's pleas, he tries many times to scale the cliffs but always fails. As a young man, he is shown to possess superhuman strength when he lifts a Lingam of Lord Siva and places it at the foot of the mountain. A mask then falls from the cliffs, and realizing it possesses feminine features, Sivudu finally succeeds in scaling the mountain in order to find the woman the mask belongs to. Upon reaching the top, he sees a beautiful woman named Avantika fighting Mahishmati soldiers. He discovers that she is a member of a local resistance group dedicated to overthrowing the tyrannical king of Mahishmati, Lord Bhallaladeva, and rescuing royal captive Princess Devasena. Sivudu is immediately smitten with Avantika and secretly follows her, even managing to draw a tattoo on her hand while she sleeps. When she discovers Sivudu she attacks him, but he outmaneuvers her and returns her mask. Realizing he scaled the entire mountain to find her, she reciprocates his feelings.

The pair are later attacked by more soldiers, and after defeating them, Sivudu pledges to rescue Devasena himself and departs for Mahishmati. He secretly enters the city on Bhallaladeva’s birthday and assists in erecting a gigantic statue of the king. In the process, he is recognized by a worker, who then leads the other workers in chanting 'Baahubali,' to Sivudu's confusion and Bhallaladeva's displeasure. Sivudu later infiltrates the royal palace disguised as a soldier and distracts Bhallaladeva and his guards long enough for him to rescue Devasena. Bhallaladeva sends his son, Bhadra, and the royal family's loyal slave Kattappa to recapture Devasena. In the ensuing fight, Sivudu beheads Bhadra as both the Amburi tribe and resistance warriors arrive. Kattappa lunges at Sivudu, but stops short of attacking him upon seeing his face. He falls into submission at Sivudu's feet, proclaiming him to be 'Baahubali'.

The next morning, Kattappa reveals to Sivudu that he is actually Mahendra Baahubali, the son of Amarendra Baahubali, a famous warrior prince from Mahishmati. Amarendra Baahubali was born an orphan; his father, King Vikramadeva, died before he was born and his mother died giving birth to him. Lord Bijjaladeva, Vikramadeva's brother and the next in line for the throne, is denied the position due to his scheming nature, and as such Bijjaladeva's wife, Lady Sivagami, assumes power with the intention of raising both her son Bhallaladeva and the orphaned Baahubali in an equal manner to select the next heir to the throne. While the two are raised as brothers and trained rigorously in numerous subjects, Bhallaladeva retains the power-hungry nature of his father while the affable Baahubali becomes beloved by the kingdom.

A traitor named Saketudu turns out to be a spy for the savage Kaalakeya tribe, known as destroyers of kingdoms. Their chief Inkoshi declares war on Mahishmati, and Sivagami decides that whoever kills Inkoshi will be crowned king. Bijjaladeva secretly supplies Bhallaladeva with more weapons and men, but Baahubali still defeats more raiders than Bhallaladeva by using innovative tactics and by inspiring his soldiers. While Bhallaaladeva kills Inkoshi, Baahubali's valour and concern for the people of his kingdom convinces Sivagami to make Baahubali heir apparent.

In the present day, Sivudu's adoptive parents, impressed by Kattappa's story, wish to meet Baahubali. A dejected Kattappa explains that Amarendra Baahubali is dead, and upon being questioned by Sivudu, he reveals that the traitor who murdered Baahubali was none other than him, setting a path for a sequel. Kattapa is revealed to be the side companion of Mahendra's father.

## Cast

*Main article: List of Baahubali characters*
### Credited

The following is the credited cast:

* Prabhas in dual roles as
	+ Amarendra Baahubali, the crown prince of Maahishmati (Telugu) / Maagizhmati (Tamil), nephew of Sivagami and Bijjaladeva and adored member of the kingdom
	+ Mahendra Baahubali "Sivudu" (Telugu) / "Sivu" (Tamil)
* Rana Daggubati as Bhallaaladeva Chakravarti (Telugu) / Palvaalthevan (Tamil), Baahubali's older cousin and a spoiled, arrogant prince with tyrannical aspirations for taking the throne.
* Anushka Shetty as Devasena (Telugu) / Devasenai (Tamil), Mahendra Baahubali's biological mother, who has been tortured and imprisoned in Maahishmati (Telugu) / Maagizhmathi (Tamil).
* Tamannaah as Avantika, a former resident of Kuntala, skilled combatant, and powerful member of the resistance.
* Ramya Krishna as Sivagaami, Bijjaladeva's wife, Bhallaaladeva Chakravarti's mother, and an established high ranking member of the royal family, who oversees the kingdom while the princes grow up
* Sathyaraj as Karikala Kattappa, the general of armed forces, a mentor and combat teacher to the royals of Mahishmati (Telugu) / Magizhmathi (Tamil). Despite this his status is equal to that of a servant and comes from a long line of slave warriors bound to the kingdom's monarch.
* Nassar as Bijjaladeva (Telugu) / Pingaladevan (Tamil), the deranged older brother of Vikramadeva and rejected prince, who has a deformed left arm.

### Others

* Rohini as Sanga, leader of the Amburi tribe and Mahendra's adoptive mother
* Meka Ramakrishna as Jaya Varma, leader of the Kuntala rebels and Devasena's brother.
* Tanikella Bharani as Swamiji, an Amburi sage who has devoted himself to Shiva's prayer.
* Adivi Sesh as Bhadrudu (Telugu) / Bhadra (Tamil), Bhallaladeva's adoptive son, who has taken an arrogant and controlling personality alike his father.
* Prabhakar as the Inkoshi, King of Kalkeyas, who took leadership as a young boy and declares war on Mahishmati (Telugu) / Magizhmathi (Tamil) after their failed truce.
* Sudeepa as Aslam Khan, an Arabian weapon's dealer who befriends Kattappa.
* Charandeep as Inkoshi's brother
* Teja Kakumanu as Saketudu, a traitor who tells the Kalakeyas information about Mahishmati (Telugu) / Magizhmathi (Tamil)
* Madhu Sneha Upaadhyaay as dancer in blue blouse in song "Manohari"
* Nora Fatehi as dancer in green blouse in song "Manohari"
* Scarlett Mellish Wilson as dancer in orange blouse in song "Manohari"
* S. S. Rajamouli, the director himself, as the spirit seller before the song "Manohari"

### 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.Template:Better source needed 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.Template:Better source needed

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."

## Music

*Main article: Baahubali: The Beginning (soundtrack)*
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.

### Home media

Arka Media Works gave the satellite rights to Star Maa and the Malayalam dubbed version was also given the satellite rights to Mazhavil Manorama. The Tamil version was given to Jaya TV. The Kannada dubbed version was given to Colors Kannada. The Hindi dubbed version was given the satellite rights to Sony Max. The Odia dubbed version of this movie was given to Zee Sarthak. The Bhojpuri dubbed version of the movie was later given to Bhojpuri Cinema. The Marathi dubbed version of this movie was given to Shemaroo Marathibana. The Bengali dubbed version of this movie was given to Enterr10 Bangla.

Netflix acquired the digital rights for streaming all languages of the film.

## Reception

### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 19 reviews are positive.

## Accolades

*Main article: List of accolades received by *Baahubali: The Beginning**
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

*Main article: Baahubali 2: The Conclusion*
*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. Post the success of the film, a film movement was started, i.e. Pan-India films.

In 2017, *Kattappava Kanom* (Template:Translation), which was named after the character of Kattappa from the film, was released. In 2018, Netflix announced that they had ordered a web television prequel series called *Baahubali: Before the Beginning*. Sathyaraj is referred to as Kattappa in a scene from *Kanaa* (2018).

## Notes

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The average exchange rate in 2015 was 64.15 Indian rupees (Template:INR) per 1 US dollar (US$).

## References

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1. ↑ [TBA *BAAHUBALI* [Telugu version] (15)] (9 July 2015).
2. ↑ [TBA *BAAHUBALI* [Tamil version] (15)] (9 July 2015).
3. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Has SS Rajamouli's Baahubali 2 earned Rs 500 cr even before release?"] Check `|url=` value (help). India Today. Retrieved 1 February 2017. Check `|archive-url=` value (help)
4. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `augfirst`
5. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Baahubali 1 earned Rs 600 crore but made zero profit. The reason is Baahubali 2"] Check `|url=` value (help). Indian Express. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `tollymovie`
7. ↑ [TBA USD to INR Historical Exchange Rates - CIA World Factbook].
8. ↑ [TBA Baahubali: The Beginning].
9. ↑ [TBA Baahubali – The Beginning Telugu Full Movie | 4K Ultra HD with Subtitles]. YouTube (30 November 2015).
10. ↑ [TBA Strong yet subjugated: The 'Baahubali' series has interesting female characters but it's not enough]. The News Minute (2 June 2017).
11. ↑ [TBA Watching Baahubali 2? Here is how you can get discounts on tickets from BookMyShow, Paytm]. The Indian Express (28 April 2017).
12. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Krishnamoorthy, Suresh (10 July 2015). [TBA "Bahubali roar reaches a crescendo"] Check `|url=` value (help). *The Hindu*. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
13. ↑ [TBA Baahubali's Kalakeya plays the villain in Prabhudheva's next | regional movies]. *Hindustan Times* (16 May 2017).
14. ↑ [TBA Kiccha Sudeep not part of Baahubali 2 (Bahubali) after all!]. *International Business Times* (27 March 2017).
15. ↑ [TBA 'Baahubali' actor Teja Kakumanu turns into Sambadu for *Aakashavaani*]. *The Times of India* (19 November 2020).
16. ↑ [TBA Nora Fatehi suffers a wardrobe malfunction on 'Baahubali' set – Entertainment]. *Midday* (23 July 2015).
17. ↑ [TBA Prabhas is shy and extremely humble: Scarlett Wilson]. *The Times of India* (16 April 2015).
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 [TBA The Magic Of Baahubali Decoded – Pete Draper's Exclusive Interview On Its Visual Effects # 17]. *Youtube* (28 October 2015).
19. ↑ [TBA Srinivas Mohan believes 'Baahubali' is the new benchmark for visual effects in Indian cinema].
20. ↑ [TBA Meet Baahubali's VFX team]. *Deccan Chronicle* (21 July 2015).
21. ↑ [TBA About | Srushti VFX].
22. ↑ [TBA Baahubali, With Hollywood Level VFX, is Breaking Not Just Box Office Records]. NDTV Movies.
23. ↑ [TBA AMD Graphics Help Deliver Amazing Big Screen Wonders to Baahubali: The Beginning].
24. ↑ [TBA This little-known Hyderabadi studio made Baahubali a visual spectacle – Quartz]. *qz.com* (16 July 2015).
25. ↑ [TBA Baahubali's next schedule starts tomorrow]. *The Times of India* (19 April 2014).
26. ↑ Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore
27. ↑ Template:Citation
28. ↑ Template:Citation
29. ↑ Template:CitationTemplate:Cbignore
30. ↑ Template:Citation
31. ↑ [TBA 'Baahubali' ('Bahubali') First Week Box Office Collection: Rajamouli's Film Grosses Rs 255 Cr in 7 Days]. *International Business Times* (17 July 2015).
32. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Rao, Ch Sushil (29 March 2016). [TBA "Magnum opus Baahubali: Best film of the year"] Check `|url=` value (help). *Deccan Chronicle*. Retrieved 5 April 2017. Check `|archive-url=` value (help)
33. ↑ [TBA Telugu Director S S Rajamouli in 100 Years of Indian Cinema Documentary]. NDTV Movies.
34. ↑ [TBA 'Baahubali (Bahubali) 2' release date revealed]. *International Business Times* (8 August 2016).
35. ↑ [TBA How Baahubali changed the face of Telugu cinema worldwide] (en) (12 April 2018).
36. ↑ M, Ramakrishnan (16 March 2017). [TBA Finding Kattappa].
37. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>[TBA "Netflix to feature Baahubali prequel"] Check `|url=` value (help). Press Trust of India. 3 August 2018. Retrieved 3 August 2018 – via The Hindu.
38. ↑ Template:Cite magazine
39. ↑ <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Kamaraj, Arunraja (Director) (21 December 2018). *Kanaa* (Motion picture). Event occurs at 1:18:53.

## External links

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