Baahubali 2’s highly anticipated grand unveiling on Friday didn’t come without its share of troubles, including the last-minute cancellation of morning shows across Tamil Nadu.
A lot went into the making of this epic film, which was simultaneously released in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. This much-delayed film, which has released to generally positive reviews, faces problems befitting its granduer. Here’s taking a look at all the obstacles Rajamouli and team had to weave past:
A never-ending schedule
The film was conceptualised back in 2013 with major work on the sequel done at the same time. After having finished more than half of the work on some of these sequences, the team had to set those aside and focus on finishing up the first part. When revisiting these CG shots that they had previously worked on, all of them felt that they could do better and ended up redoing many of these sequences. Another unexpected issue that cropped up due to the long schedule concerned maintaining continuity with Anushka Shetty’s appearance. The actress, who plays Maharani Devasena, had reportedly put on some weight after shooting the first part and this led to some delay in the shooting of her sequences.
The draining VFX
Baahubali 2 cannot exist without its visual effects. The film has close to 2,500 VFX shots, that were created by some 1,300 VFX artists from 36 studios across the world. The movie faced a lot of delays due to the intricacy of some of the VFX work. While Baahubali: The Beginning explored only two main locations in its world–the waterfall and a few parts of the Mahishmati kingdom– Baahubali: The Conclusion lays emphasis on the spaces inside the Mahishmati and Kunthala kingdoms, with much attention paid to the details. There are also many more set pieces and plenty more action and drama in the second part. The sets from the first part too have been enhanced exponentially for the sequel.
The Karnataka problem
A move to block the release of the movie in Karnataka was made by pro-Karnataka groups, which called for an apology from Sathyaraj, who plays Kattappa in the film, for statements made by the actor nine years ago during the height of the Cauvery conflict. The issue was finally resolved following video appeals made by the director, SS Rajamouli, and actor Sathyaraj, who formally apologised for any hurt he may have caused to the people of Karnataka.
Going tough in Tamil Nadu too
Karnataka was not the only State in which the release of the film looked doubtful. The release in Tamil Nadu was also stalled due to financial problems that reportedly arose between K Productions and Sri Green Productions, which had bought the entire Tamil Nadu theatrical rights for Baahubali 2 from Rajarajan of K Productions. Later when the case came for hearing, both the parties opted to solve the issue amicably with help from the Tamil Nadu Film Producer Council.
The last straw
On April 28, the day of the film’s release, morning shows of Baahubali 2 got cancelled all around Tamil Nadu. Reports suggest that this happened because of financial issues that cropped up between K Productions, who bought the theatrical rights, and Arka Mediaworks, the producers of the film. It is believed that K productions had not paid all the dues to Arka Mediaworks. Due to this Arka Mediaworks apparently decided not to issue the No Objection Certificate. Theaters can screen a movie only after this certificate is obtained. The encrypted security key essential to the exclusive screening of the movie, termed as Key Delivery Message (KDM), could not be released without the No Objection Certificate. These issues were eventually put to rest, with the film getting screened from noon.
Miscellaneous issues concerning pricing, leaks, etc.
The movie also faced other issues like the sudden demand from theatre owners in Karnataka to remove the planned Rs. 200 cap on the ticket price. The film also had some of its stills leaked before the release of the movie. Booking issues too came into play.
Baahubali 2 was initially planned to be released in IMAX format across all languages, but the IMAX format has been made available only for the Telugu and Hindi versions. The Tamil and Malayalam version were not released in the format, which caused huge disappointment among the audiences of these languages. There were also reports that local tribes of Kannur, Kerala, where a few sequences were shot, interfered with the shooting.
Following the negotiation of all these hurdles, SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion was finally released yesterday in approximately 9,000 screens worldwide–6,500 in India, 1,100 in USA and 1,400 screens across the rest of the world.
Source: The New Indian Express