The unprecedented buzz surrounding SS Rajamouli’s
Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (also spelt as
Baahubali)
turned out to be a tsunami at the box-office on the first day of its
release. It’s the first movie in recent years to earn the tag of a
‘national film’ and several reports suggest that it is poised to take an
earth-shattering opening at the box-office throughout the country.
While it remains to be seen how well the film does in terms of numbers,
here are five lessons that Indian film industry could learn from
Bahubali 2’s success.
1. What’s Your ‘Why’?
For the past few months,
Bahubali 2’s
publicity campaign revolved around the theme of ‘Why did Kattappa
killed Baahubali?’. The question inspired several theories and memes
ever since
Bahubali: The Beginning released, and the constant
buzz about the question ensured that there was enough curiosity among
people when it came to awaiting
Bahubali 2’s release. In a way,
it was one of the reasons why people flocked to theatres. There was a
genuine desire to know the answer. To put it in perspective, it’s a
question that every filmmaker and producer needs to address right at the
inception. Why should people watch a film? Does it have a strong
emotional undercurrent which will hold the story together, beyond all
the charisma of the lead actors? The ‘Why’ of
Bahubali 2 was also its USP.
Rana Daggubati and Prabhas in Bahubali 2 (also spelt as Baahubali)
2. You Can’t Create Hype
No
one knows what actually convinces someone to watch a film. Is it the
trailer? Or an actor? Or a director? Since no actor or filmmaker wants
to take a chance to reach out to the audience, through various mediums,
sometimes the publicity blitzkrieg doesn’t quite get the desired
results. You can’t create hype, just like you can’t make a video go
‘viral’. It just happens and with some momentum, it takes a life of its
own. In the weeks leading up to the release, the makers of
Bahubali 2
kept talking about how challenging the project was and how much effort
each member of the team had put in. Since people were already aware of
the film franchise, the extensive marketing campaign for the film across
the country, along with news that it’s going to have the biggest ever
release for any film, raised people’s curiosity. Considering that the
team barely released any visuals from the film, except the trailer and a
30-second promo of the '
Sahore Baahubali' song, it was the fan-base of
Bahubali franchise which made the film huge.
3. It’s All About Building Credibility
For
any South Indian filmmaker, to test the waters in North Indian market
has been risky business. Except for the likes of Rajinikanth, Kamal
Haasan, Shankar, Mani Ratnam and Priyadarshan — very few South Indian
filmmakers and actors have made their mark in Hindi. SS Rajamouli was a
recent entrant to the list when his 2012 film
Makkhi (Eega in Telugu) caught a lot of attention, although it didn’t quite do well at the box-office. But
Makkhi was Rajamouli’s passport to become a noted figure in Bollywood and soon, the success of
Bahubali: The Beginning
in 2015 changed everything. It’s all about building credibility, if you
are venturing into a new market. It takes years of hard work and
patience to make inroads in a different area and
Bahubali 2 team has proved how to do that.
4. Spending The Right Way
It’s
an open secret that when it comes to films featuring A list actors,
remuneration forms a large chunk of the film’s budget. And more the
budget, more is the price at which it is sold to distributors which also
increases the risk factor. Although
Bahubali 1 and
2
boasted of a budget of nearly Rs 450 crores, it worked a little
differently for the whole team. Rajamouli and Prabhas are said to have
settled for a monthly salary throughout the making of the film to ensure
that most part was spent on production. “We knew that we can’t make the
film if we stick to taking a huge sum as remuneration even before the
film released. I prefer working with producers who are willing to spend
more on production and ensure that there isn’t too much of a risk for
distributors. And I’m quite comfortable working with Shobu Yarlagadda
(one of the producers of the film) because we are on the same page,”
Rajamouli said at a recent event. Despite its humongous budget, the
makers ensured that they made a good profit even before the film
released.
5. Universal Stories Are The Future
Bahubali
is a rare film which broke all regional and cultural barriers to become
a national film. This is a huge paradigm change from the notion that
directors and actors, in most cases than not, make films which cater to
the audiences in a certain region or language. Since
Bahubali
is a period film, given our obsession with Indian mythology and
folklore, it had a certain universal appeal right from the word go. When
it was dubbed in Hindi or Malayalam, the film worked like magic and
how! Perhaps, there’ll be lot more period films and action dramas, which
would try to emulate
Bahubali’s success, in the near future. But will they have the same universal appeal? Only time will tell.
प्रियंका चोपड़ा और कल्पना चावला
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