Baahubali’s Rajamouli on Working With Rajinikanth and AR Rahman

Baahubali’s director SS Rajamouli opens up about working with Rajinikanth and AR Rahman

SS Rajamouli, who made heads turn with Baahubali and is currently busy shooting the sequel in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, participated in an event held in a college in Chennai this weekend. In his candid interaction with the students, Rajamouli shared some interesting nuggets about his ambitious projects including Garuda and Mahabharata, on working with Rajinikanth and why he remains hesitant to collaborate with Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman.

On Garuda and Mohanlal

The grapevine in Telugu film industry is abuzz with rumours that SS Rajamouli is considering Mohanlal to cast in Garuda. Rajamouli has finally put the rumours to rest and spilled some beans about the project.

Yes. Garuda is there in my mind. But sorry, I cannot reveal any details about it now. Mohanlal is one of the fantastic actors in the country. I would love to work with him. But, I haven’t even developed the script of Garuda yet and I can’t think about the cast at this moment.

SS Rajamouli

On Teaming Up With Rajinikanth

You ask this question to any director in the South Indian film industry and their answer will be the same. I don’t know what kind of role I would offer Rajinikanth, but if at all I make a film with him, I will make sure that no one from the audience listens to the dialogues on screen for at least ten days. They should hear only hoots and whistles.

SS Rajamouli

Mahabharata and Game of Thrones

I think I’ll need at least ten years of experience to start making Mahabharata and it will take a minimum of four parts to complete the story. Let’s talk about it practically. For Baahubali which needed to be made in two parts, Prabhas had to make himself available for three years. He shared my dream and dedicated himself to the project. Now, we are talking about Mahabharata which is four parts and needs a minimum time frame of six years of filming. With characters like Krishna, Duryodhana, Bheema, Karna and many others to be cast for the film, can you imagine any star who would give dates for six years in his career? Practically, to dedicate oneself totally six years for a project is almost impossible for an established star.

If you need to create Mahabharata, you need to ‘create’ stars. You cannot do it with the existing stars. Most of you must have been familiar with the Game of Thrones series. Except for one or two actors, did you know anyone from the cast at the beginning of the series? But, by the end of the second or third season, you would have known the names of almost all characters and fallen in love with them too. Now, you wouldn’t want anyone else to play those roles, right? That’s how it needs to be done. We need to ‘create’ stars.

SS Rajamouli

Why Rajamouli Is Hesitant to Work With AR Rahman

I don’t know. We might make some of the best works to come out of India or we might end up fighting. Every creator has a certain working style. From whatever I have heard, Rahman Sir starts working after it gets dark. My brain starts sleeping the moment it gets dark. I get up at 4-4.30 in the morning and I work till 7 or 8 o’clock. This is my most creative time period. That is the time Rahman Sir sleeps actually (laughs). So, I don’t know how it will be working with him.

SS Rajamouli