It was on this day (July 10) in 2015 that 'Baahubali: The Beginning' hit the screens. As the iconic film turns seven, it is time to remember the game-changing decision that its producers Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni took.
After the project was finalized, Rajamouli felt that the movie should be divided into two parts to accommodate the span of the story, its emotional depth and the glory of its characters. He and his team went back to the drawing room to assess production budgets for the two parts.
It emerged that the budget for the two parts would reach a figure never heard before in the history of Indian cinema. The 'RRR' director himself was taken aback by the quantum of money needed. He told the producers that it would be better to stall the project and instead take up a boxing-based movie that he had in mind. He told them he would make his friend Prabhas see the point.
At this, the producers told him to go ahead with the 'Baahubali' movies no matter what the budget was going to be. That unprecedented, ambitious decision changed the fate of Indian cinema forever. Without the 'Baahubali' movies, there wouldn't have been big-spectacle pan-India movies today.
