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HMWSSB rejects SS Rajamouli’s request for 150 water tankers for Varanasi underwater shoot
With Hyderabad's summer water demand already stretched thin, civic authorities refused to supply 15 lakh litres to the Varanasi set in Gaganpahad, leaving the production team of one of India's most anticipated films to find alternatives.
Varanasi is set to hit screens in April 2027.
The production of SS Rajamouli‘s Varanasi has hit a roadblock in its own backyard, and the problem has nothing to do with the size of its ambition. It has to do with water.
On April 24, Sri Durga Arts, the production house behind the film, wrote to the Managing Director of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board at Khairthabad. The letter, signed and stamped with receipt number 1595, requested the allocation of 150 tankers, each with a 10,000-litre capacity, to fill a water pond the team had constructed at Hyderabad Film City Studio in Gaganpahad, R.R. District. According to the production house, the water was needed for underwater sequences being filmed as part of the ongoing shoot. The production asked for filling to begin from April 27 and for the water to be purified to a standard suitable for filming by May 18. Sri Durga Arts also made clear in the letter that it was willing to pay for the supply on delivery, either at the location or as directed by the board.
According to the officials, Hyderabad is currently in the middle of a difficult summer. Tanker demand across the city has risen sharply, and residential areas are already competing for limited supply. Against that backdrop, diverting roughly 15 lakh litres to a film set was not something the board was in a position to commit to. HMWSSB Managing Director K. Ashok Reddy also pushed back on reports suggesting any water had already been sent to the production, saying those claims were not accurate.
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Varanasi is an upcoming Telugu-language epic action-adventure directed by SS Rajamouli. In an earlier interview, Rajamouli described the film as a globetrotting adventure rooted in Indian cultural themes, drawing from the structure of classic adventure cinema in the vein of Indiana Jones.
Mahesh Babu plays the lead in Varanasi, with Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran in key roles. The shoot has already taken the crew across India, Kenya, and Antarctica, making it the first Indian film to shoot on that continent. The film’s reported budget stands at Rs 1,400 crore, which would make it the most expensive Indian production ever made. The music is being composed by MM Keeravani, Rajamouli’s longtime collaborator, with his son S S Karthikeya backing up the production. The film is slated to release on April 7, 2027.
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