India’s biggest film franchise hot on Hollywood’s heels

Actor Prabhas in a scene from “Baahubali 2.”

HYDERABAD, India: The makers of India’s biggest and most ambitious film, “Baahubali 2,” hope its top-notch visual effects will wean Indian audiences from Hollywood blockbusters, enticing them with the magical kingdoms, rampaging armies and towering palaces of a homegrown fantasy epic.
“Baahubali 2” is the most highly awaited Indian film of the decade. But the competition for Spider-Man and other movie franchises from overseas is not coming from Bollywood.
When it opened in cinemas in 2015, dubbed versions of “Baahubali: The Beginning,” made in the Telugu language widely spoken in India’s southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, resonated with audiences nationwide.
It used computer-generated imagery to depict ancient kingdoms and bloody wars in a quintessentially Indian battle of good versus evil.
Film-maker S.S. Rajamouli aims to do even better when the next instalment is released on April 28.
Inspired by Hollywood epics such as “Ben Hur” and “The Ten Commandments” when growing up, Rajamouli wanted to create a tentpole franchise that delivered a memorable movie experience.
But younger audiences were looking to Hollywood franchises such as “The Fast and the Furious,” and the superheroes of the Marvel and DC Comics universe for the big-screen thrills Indian cinema was unable to provide.
“They have heavy budgets, they have huge star casts and huge studios backing them,” Rajamouli, 43, said in an interview in Hyderabad, his home city.
“But if we make 10 percent of it in an Indian context, with our stories, our heroes and heroines ... we can easily compete.”
If all goes well, a record-breaking run for “Baahubali 2” would be a wake-up call for Bollywood, where cinema attendance has halved from a decade ago.
With a spinoff TV series, an animated offering for Amazon videostreaming, a comic book and a possible third film in the works, “Baahubali” could lure back Indian audiences.