SS Rajamouli explains why he is inclined towards making pan-India films: ‘A storyteller is a very greedy person…’

SS Rajamouli shared how his failure to release Ram Charan-led Magadheera in various languages made him committed to releasing his movies in as many languages as possible.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | January 19, 2023 06:35 PM IST

3 min read

SS Rajamouli has helmed RRR. (Photo: Seth Meyers/YouTube)

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RRR director SS Rajamouli has repeatedly tasted pan-India success. It started with his 2012 film Eega and was followed by the Baahubali franchise and most recently RRR. But the filmmaker wanted to go pan-India with the release of Magadheera in 2009.

In a recent interview with Hollywood Reporter, Rajamouli shared how his failure to release Ram Charan-led Magadheera in various languages made him committed to releasing his movies in as many languages as possible. He said, “With Magadheera, I pressurised and begged my producer to just dub the film and release it in Tamil. I really believed in the product and he refused for whatever reason. We couldn’t do it. It was a hugely successful film in Telugu but it didn’t go out anywhere else outside my states.”

Also read | SS Rajamouli says it’s a ‘dream to make film in Hollywood’: ‘Back in India, I’m the dictator…’

It was then that SS Rajamouli decided to work only with producers who believed in his sense of storytelling. The filmmaker shared, “I decided that going forward I will only work with producers who would believe that my stories can travel. Luckily, that happened with Eega, we dubbed it into Tamil, Malayalam, and released it in Karnataka also. It did exceptionally well. It gave 7x/8x profit.”

Then, with Baahubali, Rajamouli made a film which he thought “is going to transcend boundaries”. When asked why he is inclined towards releasing his films in different languages, Rajamouli cited his “greed as a storyteller” as the major reason.

Also read | SS Rajamouli: ‘RRR is not a Bollywood film, it is a Telugu film that comes from the south of India’

“A storyteller is a very greedy person, He wants his story to be heard by the maximum number of audience, and I am no different. Taking the film to different audiences is one aspect. Second thing is, when you have a story, it dictates whether to go big, very big or go to a small target audience. So if you are not putting your effort to make the story reach the target audience, then you are not doing your job right,” remarked Rajamouli.

SS Rajamouli is currently busy with the Oscar campaign for RRR in the US. The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards will be announced on January 24.

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