Before Baahubali 2, Prabhas gets a special gift from SS Rajamouli

SS Rajamouli has gifted Prabhas the iconic Baahubali armour to mark the hard work the actor has put in over the years.

SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali is one of the biggest film franchise of the Indian film industry and the two films took nearly five years to complete. Now that Baahubali 2 is about to land in a few days, the whole team, and especially director SS Rajamouli, has been talking about the complete dedication the film’s Baahubali, Prabhas, showed towards the project. Prabhas plays the double role of Amarendra and Mahendra Baahubali and gave up over four years of his life to the film. Reports say he postponed his marriage plans, had a volleyball court in his own house to ensure he maintains his warrior physique and didn’t sign any other projects. Owing the level of commitment Prabhas had given to the team, SS Rajamouli has decided to gift him the armour which was worn by Baahubali in the film.

“Show me one actor who can spend more than three years on a character he believes in. Prabhas and I became very close after we worked together for the first time in Chatrapathi, and we used to spend a lot of time together. Thank you Prabhas for being my friend,” Rajamouli said, adding, “I can’t think of anyone else for Baahubali but Prabhas.”

Speaking about Prabhas’ sheer dedication to the project, he said, “When I decided to make the film on such a grand scale, I knew the kind of commitment was needed for this canvas. Even before I discussed the story with Prabhas, he was already in it.”

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Baahubali 2 will release on April 28 and Prabhas has finally started looking at other projects. There was also speculation that Karan Johar is persuading the actor to make his Bollywood debut. However, when indianexpress.com asked Prabhas about it, the actor was noncommittal and said he will reveal the details one day.

Also read: Rana Daggubati on Baahubali 2: This is not Game of Thrones, India’s story-telling tradition is far greater

Prabhas had to go through a lot of hard work to undergo the massive physical transformation for Baahubali. His original body weight was 82 kg but the actor bulked up to 105 kg to play the role of Amarendra Baahubali. He had to touch 88 kg again to play Shivdu. Along with that, he maintained his long locks to sustain his Baahubali looks. In fact, he recently got his hair chopped off.

Baahubali also stars Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia, Anushka Shetty and Satyaraj in pivotal roles. The film is slated to release on 28th April, 2017.