Prithviraj Sukumaran shot Varanasi sequence covered with flies, with hands and legs bound; Mahesh Babu says: ‘He was praying to God’ 

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He said, ‘I am glad that you asked this because there was this one day of shooting where he had this long monologue.’ But he had flies all over his face, and the poor guy couldn’t do anything about it; he couldn’t move. For this one shot he literally prayed for the flies to not bother him. I think they heard his prayers.”

Prithviraj Sukumaran as Kumbha in Varanasi. (Photo: X/SS Rajamouli)

Prithviraj explained the process and said, “To make sure that I don’t involuntarily move my arms and legs, they are sort of locked in place by a mechanism. I can truly then be sure that, ‘whatever I do, I am not going to be moving my hands or legs. ‘Which then also means that if a fly comes on my nose… But yeah, there’s a lot more to the wheelchair than what you see in the picture. It’s an extension of his personality and how he works. He is a very dangerous man; he just happens to be incapacitated.”

Hearing the thought put behind the villain, the host pointed out that Rajamouli really loves his villains. To prove this, Mahesh shared another anecdote and said, “I have an elephant memory, and I remember everything. Before he narrated this story, and this was one of the early meetings… During RRR, he was asking me about what kind of a film we want to make. We hadn’t zeroed in on a script yet. He finished lunch, and he asked me, ‘Do you have anything in mind?’ ‘I thought, What do I tell him? I mean, his vision is so big.’ When he left, I messaged him and said, ‘I am just very happy that I am doing this film with you. I really like how you present your heroes; you really love them.’ He said, ‘Thank you, but I love my villains more.'”