SS Rajamouli reveals his plans on Mahabharata
After the enormous success of the Baahubali franchise, several filmmakers across industries are planning to make period dramas on a huge scale. And the favourite theme of most directors is the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
A whopping Rs 1000 cr project on Mahabharata has been already in Malayalam cinema. The magnum opus, based on the novel Randamoozham, will be directed by renowned ad filmmaker VA Shrikumar Menon. Mohanlal and Nagarjuna have been confirmed to play some major roles. In fact, pre-production works for this epic film, which is also the most expensive Indian movie, has already commenced.
Earlier, SS Rajamouli had hinted about his wish to make a movie on Mahabharata. Ever since then, the audience have been waiting for an official word from the Baahubali director. In a recent interview to a Telugu channel, the director opened up about his plans on making this huge project.
He is quoted saying, “Mahabharata is a project that is very close to my heart. I’ve read many versions of Mahabharata from my childhood. So it is not easy to plunge straight into making such a big project. It will be difficult for me to work on it currently. I see this a 10 year project. But I have my doubts on how to handle this movie technically. Not just the technical aspects, we cannot just rope in some big stars and start shooting. Casting for each character should be perfect and they should be properly trained. All that is a challenging process and will take a lot of time. Apart from that, I want my Mahabharata to be unique. There have been several versions to it, so my work should be able to erase all the other versions that the audience are used to seeing. But I can’t say that I will have the same health and physical fitness after 8 years to helm such a project. Even then, I will definitely try to do it.”
Earlier in an interview, the director had said that, since the movie can only be made in a span of 5-6 years, actors would have to dedicate huge amount of time. So it will be practically very difficult for big stars to work on it. So they will have to make new stars out of the film, like how it is in the popular English TV show Game of Thrones.
