SS Rajamouli unveils time-travel journey movie ‘Varanasi,’ with parts of Hindu mythology

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, the blockbuster film director behind global hits like “RRR” and “Baahubali” that redefined Indian cinema’s scale and caught Hollywood’s consideration, has unveiled his most formidable movie but.

Known for mixing mythic storytelling with grand motion and imaginative choreography, Rajamouli introduced his newest movie — and its title — at an occasion Saturday within the southern Indian metropolis of Hyderabad, the place 1000’s of his cheering followers thronged to catch a primary glimpse.

While particulars in regards to the plot of the movie “Varanasi” — beforehand code-named “Globe Trotter” — stay beneath wraps, the practically four-minute video confirmed a visually wealthy time-travel journey that attracts elements of its storyline from Hindu mythology. The movie borrows its title from the Indian metropolis thought of Hinduism’s religious coronary heart.

Rajamouli mentioned the movie might be projected in cinemas in IMAX format and is anticipated to launch in 2027.

“Here you go… VARANASI to the WORLD…” Rajamouli wrote on X.

At the occasion, he alluded that one of many movie’s sequences attracts from “an important episode” from the Ramayana, a Hindu non secular epic primarily based on Lord Rama’s life.

For “Varanasi,” Rajamouli has assembled a star-studded forged, headlined by Telugu famous person Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Having attained fame as a Bollywood famous person, Chopra Jonas returns to Indian cinema with this movie after a number of Hollywood initiatives. A movie poster reveals her because the character Mandakini, in a mustard sari with a pistol in hand as she balances on the sting of a cliff.

“Varanasi” is Babu’s first collaboration with Rajamouli. The first look reveals him as a fierce warrior coated in blood and using a white bull with a trident in hand. Babu certainly made his entry onstage Saturday atop a mechanical white bull.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime project,” Babu mentioned after unveiling the teaser in Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City, the throbbing coronary heart of Telugu cinema, also called Tollywood. “I will make everyone proud. The whole of India will be proud of us.”

Thousands of frenzied followers watched the movie’s first glimpse on a mammoth 110-by-130-foot (33.5-by-39.5-meter) display screen flanked by replicas of Varanasi metropolis. A show of colourful lights and dazzling fireworks lit up the venue as crowds danced to the foot-tapping tunes of Telugu music — a mixture of new songs and classics — turning the occasion right into a vibrant pageant.

The Telugu-language movie business has carved out its personal id separate from Hindi-language Bollywood with its high-octane and generally logic-defying motion, mythic storylines and grand visible type. And a lot of Tollywood’s current success — vital and field workplace — has been credited to Rajamouli, whose larger-than-life heroes and bold filmmaking with imaginative visible results have catapulted the movie business onto the worldwide stage.

Rajamouli turned a world identify after “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” his 2022 three-hour, Telugu-language epic set in British India. The sprawling anti-colonial story turned one among India’s greatest hits, was a world streaming phenomenon, and won an Oscar for best original song. His two-part “Baahubali” sequence, launched in 2015 and 2017, broke box-office data in India and launched Western audiences to the visible grandeur of Telugu cinema. A reedited model combining the 2 elements, “Baahubali: The Epic,” launched in cinemas worldwide simply final month.

Many Tollywood movie followers traveled from faraway cities and villages to observe Babu, who instructions a near-godlike following amongst them.

“It’s not actually Tollywood now, it’s global now,” mentioned Manideep Rayudu, a fan. “Our superstar Mahesh Babu is not a regional star anymore. He is a global star.”

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