'Baahubali' proved content drives a film, not actors: Rana Daggubati

SS Rajamouli's magnum opus Baahubali has become the third highest-grossing Indian film with a Rs.545 crore worldwide box-office collection. The film is still going strong in theatres in India and around the globe.

Actor Rana Daggubati, who plays Bhallala Deva in the film, talks to dna about his role and what Baahubali means for India—

Baahubali has become the third highest-grossing Indian film.

It’s extremely overwhelming in terms of what Baahubali has done. Though it’s primarily a Tamil-Telugu film, the dubbed versions of Hindi and Malayalam have also done exceptionally well. The Hindi dubbed version has crossed about Rs.115 crore and is still doing well. Somewhere this goes out to show that no matter who the star is, it is content that drives the film. With something like this, the options of making of so many more different kinds of films become available for us.

How was your journey with director SS Rajamouli during the last three years?

SS Rajamouli is someone who had this big epic canvas in his mind and wanted to execute that. As a director, he gives actors complete freedom, but at the same time he has put together very good briefs of what every character should be like. Then you start living that brief and that’s how it goes.

For the last three years, whether it Prabhas, me or some others who shot for it, we haven’t done any other work apart from this one film. We knew we were going to be part of something very, very large and when you go to that film set you know that the things you are doing, or shooting have never been done in films before. We gave it our all and in the end, we are reaping the benefits. We have already completed about 60% of part 2. We resume shoot in October to complete the film.

What was your workout regime like to transform into Bhallala Deva?

One had to be physically very big since the character had a much larger physique. It required heavy carb-loading. So I used to have about six-seven meals a day and my workout was about 2.5 hours a day with a combination of martial arts. The pattern of all this became the workout structure for this film. Currently, I’m shooting for Bangalore Days (a remake of the 2014 Malayalam film). Once this shoot is over, I’ll get back to bulking up again for part 2 of Baahubali.

The character of Bhallala Deva ages during this film. How was it playing such a role?

It’s the first time I’ve played a role like this and it’s an exciting piece to be part of. Right from the time I saw Mr Kamal Haasan’s film, Nayagan, I’ve always had a fascination to play an old character. When Baahubali was written and narrated to me the first time, I was extremely excited about the older Bhallala Deva. As an actor, I really enjoyed playing this role.

What can we expect from Bhallala Deva in Part 2?

Well, I just look like a mad man! (Laughs) Bhallala Deva is someone who’s heading into a negative direction. There’s a classic line that says, ‘Power corrupts and extreme power corrupts extremely’. And that’s the direction I head in, in Part 2. Ultimately, it's good taking over evil.

How difficult was it to play Bhallala Deva considering the graphics involved?

Since I come from a VFX background, I understand it slightly more. It was a lot of VFX with constructed sets as well. You’d walk into huge set but when you look it at on screen its two or threefold larger. New age technology allows you to perform in front of a non-existent image. For example, I was shooting for a bison fight sequence. They made an animatronics version and a metal-based skeleton in the dimensions of a bison. So that kind of gave me sense of scale of what I was looking at. The rest, of course, was post-production. Once you understand how it works, you just run along with it.

When it comes to VFX, there’s the impression that India is not on par with world standards. Has Baahubali proved detractors wrong?

Obviously, the United States has a 50-year head start over us in visual effects. In the 1970s, they made Star Wars, the visual effects of which are far bigger than many of the films we make today. In terms of technology, they are far, far ahead. But it’s only if there are more Indian films like Baahubali that use VFX will there be a growing community of animators and visual effects experts. Ultimately, it is content made like this that will drive the visual effects community to get better at their skill set.