The Indian cinema was forever changed when SS Rajamouli's epic action drama film, Baahubali 2 The Conclusion was released five years ago on April 28. It was the first glimpse of the changing dynamics within Indian cinema, which is now turning into a full picture.
The epic period drama Baahubali 2 headlined by Pan India star Prabhas shattered all box office records and today completes five years since its memorable release.
The mega-blockbuster film which achieved a cult status grossed 1,796 crores at the worldwide box office, is the highest grossing film in India and the second highest grossing Indian film of all time, collecting close to 8 billion worldwide within 6 days of its release.
Before Baahubali 2 set things on fire at the Indian as well as overseas box office, it was Baahubali The Beginning that set the stage up for its successor. Released in 2015, Baahubali went on to become the second highest-grossing Indian movie at that time with 650 crores worldwide gross.
It was the film that kept the audiences talking about Baahubali 2 to know the answer to the famous mysterious question - why Katappa killed Baahubali? And once the mystery was unveiled, it became a nationwide sensation that transformed into the blockbuster box office numbers. It is currently the highest-grossing Indian movie at the domestic box office with 1416.9 crores gross and second-biggest worldwide with 1788 crores gross.
Pan-India superstar Prabhas spent over fiveyears of his life being totally committed to Baahubali and the results were for all to see! Not only did the Pan-India star become a household name on home turf but across the globe as people referred to him as Baahubali, a name that will go down in history.
Such was the impact he made with this iconic character that apart from having cash registers ringing at the box office, everything from firecrackers to thalis were named after Baahubali. Prabhas’ images were also plastered across milk bottles in Japan and his Japanese fans also named a mint candy after him. And these were just some of the few examples of his crazy fandom that saw no bounds post the release of the magnum opus.
In the history of cinema, never has a South star crossed over to other markets with such ease, especially in the Hindi speaking belt - Prabhas elbowed out leading celebrity names to emerge the biggest and highest paid superstar in the country today.
Produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni under the banner of Arka Media Works, Baahubali 2 was made simultaneously in the Telugu and Tamil languages and it featured an ensemble cast including Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Ramya Krishna, Sathyaraj, Nassar, and Subbaraju, among others in key roles.
While the Prabhas fever only gets bigger by the day, the Pan India star is back in action with the mythological magnum opus, Adipurush, one of the most expensive films to be made in India, Nag Ashwin’s sci-fi Project K, the high octane action thriller Salaar and Sandeep Vanga’s Spirit that marks his career’s 25th film.
