HYDERABAD: Massive sets, big stars, celebrated director of Tollywood and a fictional story – Baahubali – touted as the biggest visual spectacle that people are about to see. Actor Rana Daggubati, who plays the lead negative role in the film, cannot stop talking about the toll it has taken on him.
“I am very eagerly waiting to get done with it,” says the actor, who realised the scale of the movie only after he started working. “It is the biggest spectacle people are going to witness,” he stresses and is glad that people are positive after watching the little that has been made public.
The story of this period film revolves around a power struggle between two brothers – Baahubali (Prabhas) and Bhallala Deva (Rana Daggubati). “It is an epic war film that will be presented in two parts and we are shooting simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil,” informs Rana.
With a theme that goes back in time, close to 1000 years ago, everything about the film has made an impact on the actors. “I play the antagonist in the film. Since it is a period tale, there is a certain way that we have to dress, talk and move. And we have been shooting for this film for almost two years now, I can’t tell you how much the character has hit me,” shares the actor, adding a lot has changed, as the cast and crew have been in a different era for a lot of time now. “It is a great feeling to re-invent a piece like this,” he says and goes ahead to narrate one incident that stands as an example to show how dominant the film has become in his life. “After I shot a war sequence, I was changing in the vanity van, and there I saw a song from Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum and I was shocked to see myself there. I couldn’t relate to that guy,” he exclaims laughing. “I have played different kinds of roles. All of them have been with me for a while. But no role has been as impactful as this one,” he admits.
The mental and physical preparation that went into making this film has been taxing, yet fascinating for Rana, who likes to be challenged. “It is a combination of a lot of things and each complements the other. My performance had to sync with the look, my voice, my physique and everything blended well. So it is not one area that needed prepping, it is a long and continuous process,” he explains pointing at the war sequence. “It was a 70-75 day long shoot – starts with rehearsals, then shoot, prepping for the next schedule, rehearsal and shooting again. The entire episode is taxing, not just physically,” he says adding that they have all decided to give all that they have.
The cast had to train in a variety of things in order to do justice to the role. “The action you see in Baahubali is not regular. We had to go through special weapon training. We had to discover a physical style for ourselves. I am 25 kilos heavier and I had to get a certain flexibility at that size. That was challenging,” he recalls. Since the movie is being filmed in Tamil too, Rana had to train specifically to get the right diction and pronunciation.
The film stars Prabhas in the lead role along with Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia and also other reputed actors like Ramya Krishnan. The actor has bonded with them over time.
“I met Prabhas only on the sets of Baahubali. Though he is senior to me, he never made me get a feel of that. He is very chilled out and over time we have built a superb rapport with each other,” says Rana. The two of them have become thick personal friends. “When you spend as long as two years on one set, you tend to become family. That is what happened with us,” he adds.
The 29-year-old actor also has a guest appearance in Rudramadevi, another period film where Anushka Shetty plays the lead role. Allu Arjun too has a cameo. “As men we are strongly built. But for a woman, it is commendable to see how Anushka was on par with Prabhas and me and fits right in the frame. She is a hero in every sense,” he opines about her role in Baahubali and about Rudramadevi he says, “Bunny (Allu Arjun) and I have grown up together, so it was fun. Anushka has done justice to the role as the queen.”
Though both the films seem like they belong to the genre, there is a lot of difference, informs Rana. “First difference is that Baahubali is fictional and Rudramadevi is a real story. My performance in Rudramadevi is much more positive,” he explains. The actor who was also a producer, a visual effects co-ordinator and photographer likes variety in life and looks for the same in his roles too. “That is what keeps you going,” he says on a parting note.
Behind the Making