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How BIG is Birthday Boy Prabhas, aka the ‘Rebel Star’?

A look at Prabhas’ stardom on his birthday. 

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Indian Cinema
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Prabhas is 6’2 and 150 kilograms of pure muscle.
If that wasn’t the answer you were looking for, read on.

In Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and of course, California, the Telugu diaspora has been celebrating Prabhas since 2004, when he delivered the blockbuster ‘Varsham’ (rain). To those uninitiated in Telugu cinema, he may be Baahubali, who burst into the scene on horseback and brown armour in 2015.

But to over 9.3 crore Telugus across the world, Prabhas, is the REBEL STAR.

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Only one movie a year
Prabhas is probably the only Telugu star to have signed just one movie a year, almost all through his career. In 15 years, he’s only acted in 18 films.
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Rebel Star - Title Inherited, Fame Earned

‘Rebel Star’ is a title he inherited from his father’s elder brother, actor Krishnam Raju.

Krishnam Raju was his inspiration, guide and a platform. The veteran actor has starred in over 183 films, across the 70s up until Rebel (2012), in which he played Prabhas’ father. The movie was hugely successful, and Prabhas, who was called ‘Young Rebel Star’ until then, took on his uncle’s mantle.

But Prabhas owes his larger-than-life appeal to SS Rajamouli. Not for 2015’s Baahubali, but for 2005’s Chatrapathi.

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Chatrapathi!

In March 2005, ‘Chakram’ was released. It had a four-minute-long fight scene. The rest of the movie is comedy, romance and a whole lot of drama. It won the director Krishna Vamsi a Nandi award.

And then came Chatrapathi (September 2005). In just five months, Prabhas had grown visibly larger. The movie made him a style icon, and tapped into his natural skill in action sequences with a level of drama that was ahead of its time.

As per usual Chatrapathi busted all blocks, and ran a full hundred days in 54 venues. It also won two Nandi awards. (Bhanupriya, for best supporting role; Keeravani, for best music).

‘Chatrapathi’ (2005) marked Prabhas’ collaboration with director SS Rajamouli
It was in this film that they came together for the first time. SS Rajamouli admits that ‘Baahubali’ was written with no one, but Prabhas in mind. 
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From Romcom Trials to Pure Action ‘REBEL’

Prabhas dabbled in rom-coms on and off between 2006 - 2012. ‘Bujjigadu’ (2008), ‘Darling’ (2010), ‘Mr Perfect’ (2011) and ‘Purnami’ (2006) were notable. They were decent hits, and featured small action scenes, just to keep the fans happy. In a sense, they established the fact that Prabhas could emote more than just anger at villains and sorrow at seeing a loved one die. But everyone knew he was made for murder.

And so with ‘Rebel’ (2012), Prabhas dug in his soles, clenched his ample calf muscles and gave the audience a blood-fest that opened the floodgates of gore-riddled action films in Tollywood.

There’s nothing more beautiful than watching Prabhas wait for a villain to come running to him, before he smashes the said villain’s face with an open palm thwack that would buy him a one-way ticket to hell. 
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The Trendsetter of Bloodfests

Allu Arjun’s ‘Iddarammayilatho’ (2013), in which he repeatedly stabs a villain in the chest, nonchalantly, was after Prabhas’ ‘Rebel’.

‘Temper’ (2015), in which NTR jr impales a villain on a policeman’s saber, and kills the rest with the blessings of the police force, was after Prabhas’ ‘Mirchi’ (2013).

In fact, a number of action sequences in Ajay Devgn’s movies, and those directed by Prabhu Deva for a Hindi speaking audience feature moves ‘adapted’ from Prabhas’ films.

Just as the stunt choreography of Tamil and Telugu films have influenced Bollywood, the level of gore that Telugu audience are now used to – which will make Quentin Tarantino barf, and feel proud at the same time – is all thanks to Prabhas.

He made gore look good, and justified it in ‘family’ entertainers.

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Bahubali (Was) the Beginning

Prabhas’ last movie before ‘Baahubali’ was ‘Mirchi’ (2013). It was one of the biggest hits of the year; a yearly phenomenon for Prabhas’ movies for over seven years by this time.

Prabhas was already a huge name in Tollywood, with a large fan following, not just in Telugu, but in Hindi as well. Almost all of his movies are dubbed in Hindi and run successfully both on television, and in B-centre theaters.

He’s been associated with ‘Baahubali’ (2015 - 2017) for five years. Throughout numerous interviews between the first and the second film, the one constant has been the feeling of mutual respect between SS Rajamouli and Prabhas.

SS Rajamouli was open about the fact that the character was written with Prabhas in mind, and that there were no other options he had considered.

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Even before ‘Baahubali’, Prabhas had a huge fan following in Maharashtra and Bihar.
Prabhas, Allu Arjun and NTR jr are the three Tollywood stars who are staples across Bihar and Maharashtra, especially in cities like Solapur, Chapra and Aurangabad.
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‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ (2017) made an estimated Rs 1,725 crores this year, and continues to hold the audience on the small screen. Both Prabhas and director SS Rajamouli have expressed their fear of not being able to live up to this success in the future.

But for now, Prabhas can rest on his laurels, and on the fact that he has (almost effortlessly) broken the language barrier, and is seen as an entertainer by people across the world.

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‘Baahubali’ Listicle (Because You Know You Want It)

Snapshot
  • Prabhas spent 600 days (five years) on the project.
  • He received over 6,000 marriage proposals, all of which he turned down.
  • He didn’t take up any other project during this span, though there was a six-month hiatus.
  • Anushka Sharma is one of Prabhas’ closest friends in the industry. He calls her by her pet name ‘Sweety’.
  • Prabhas addresses his co-stars, crew and friends (male and female) with ‘darling’.
  • Prabhas worked through numerous injuries and a major surgery to complete ‘Baahubali’.
  • The first thing he did after the movie, was cut his hair. ‘I didn’t know how to handle it,’ he said.
  • ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’, raked in Rs 650 crores (budget Rs 180 crore) at the box office.
  • ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, raked in over 1,725 crores (budget was 250 crores) at the box office.
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Saaho Takes The Road Ahead

After Baahubali, Prabhas has starred in a trilingual feature, ‘Saaho’, directed by Sujeeth, who debuted in 2014 with ‘Run Raja Run’ (Telugu).

The other actors in the movie are Mandira Bedi, Shraddha Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff and Chunky Pandey playing pivotal roles.

Though Saaho did not go down well with the audience, here’s hoping Prabhas will bounce back with another surprise. Wishing him happy birthday.

(This story is from The Quint’s archives and was first published on 23 October 2017. It is now being republished to mark Prabhas’ birthday.)

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Topics:  Prabhas   Bahubali 2 

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