08 November,2025 11:07 AM IST | Mumbai | Priyanka Sharma
Prabhas (right) will voice the protagonist (left), based on his ‘Baahubali’ character
Baahubali is a cinematic gift that keeps on giving. After Baahubali: The Epic, which combined the two instalments of SS Rajamouli's magnum opus, opened in theatres this October, 2027 will bring Baahubali: The Eternal War Part 1. The animated epic will take off from Baahubali: The Beginning's climax (2015) and follow Prabhas's Amarendra into the afterlife.
Ishan Shukla, who is helming the two-part animated feature that will have Prabhas and Ramya Krishnan voice the two primary characters, says the idea came from Rajamouli and producer Shobu Yarlagadda almost two years ago. At the time, Shukla was doing festival rounds with his animation film, Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust (2024). "The Star Wars episode that I had done had also come out. Shobu got in touch with me and wanted to explore if we could do something together on Baahubali. At that time, I wasn't sure if I was capable enough to do something huge like that," recounts the director.
Shukla found the confidence to lead this ambitious project in the most unlikely place - in his eight-year-old self. "I had the largest collection of Amar Chitra Katha in my community. I thought maybe I could do something for that eight-year old self," smiles the director. The Amar Chitra Katha stories and their grammar gave him the foundation for the feature. "I came up with this idea of the afterlife, and included Vedic cosmology into it. If we move into Vedic cosmology space, we can go nuts. Thelaws of physics, the way things work in Vedic cosmology is absolutely beautiful. I wanted to tap into that while keeping the drama and animation and the action of Bahubali intact."
For an independent filmmaker, Baahubali: The Eternal War was definitely a huge leap of faith, but one that fed his "second alter ego". "This is the Star Wars of India! We just continue that phenomenon because it deserves that longevity. For me, it's a super humbling experience, because I always thought I would keep doing independent films. I have a lot of ideas, and I want to bring out the personal conflicts of humans, how they talk, behave, and just the general condition of humanity, which we saw in Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust. Moving into this zone is the second alter ego of myself as I always loved comic books. There is a secondary brain in me which always wanted to do something like that. When I met Shobu, that brain got triggered."
And he received his first form of validation when Rajamouli reacted positively to his ideas. "He was very enthusiastic about it. I think hefelt that the idea of the alterlife s the right way to move in Baahubali's space.This is the way that makes most sense totake it to the next level," he says.
Conceptualising an animation film of this scale is one thing, and executing it, quite another. With production underway, the director says that the processes of writing and designing have informed each other. For world-building and characters, he also found inspiration from Telugu cinema of the 1960s and 70s. "We referred to the mythological film Maya Bazaar [1957]. The idea was to start from a point of authenticity, and then layer it with contemporary stylisation. So you start with something like Maya Bazaar, and then layer it up with something like the series, Arcane, or the Spider-Verse."
In the course of making The Eternal War, Shukla met Rajamouli many times over. Ask him his biggest learning from the ace director, and he says, "As visual artists, we think that we can make something look cool with action, music, production design. All that is secondary to him. He always focuses on the drama, the emotions, and the internal conflicts of the characters. If that works, then only he talks about other things. That was, for me, the greatest learning because that is also something I've seen in his movies a lot. All his action is driven by drama. Action for action's sake never happens there, which is a key difference between him and all other filmmakers."
Being an outsider to the Baahubali family, Shukla knew that before anything else, what he needed was complete trust of the makers and the cast. And the director beams as he shares that he found a rhythm with his collaborators early on in the making. "They are all very collaborative. We had very few lines in the teaser. So, it's not like Prabhas and Ramya ma'am had to work for long hours. But they were supportive all the way. When we do the voices, we have to show the actors glimpses of what we're doing. Both of them were quite blown away by what they saw," he says.
With stars, comes the pressure of expectations, which the filmmaker says he is conscious about but not burdened by. "Prabhas is a legend. He is (considered) almost God! Rajamouli sir has so much respect all around the world. Of course, it is a nervous process because you feel the responsibility of not just the money but the expectations of the fans behind you. I take that very seriously, but at the same time, I also want to make sure that I don't get under that burden. I also try to have fun so that the film is also good and exciting. I think whatever hard work I have done all my life has culminated into this moment," he shares.
But there's another moment that has become pivotal to his animation career, he tells us. "One of the greatest moments of my animation career was when I was at the Sudarshan Theatre in Hyderabad. It's a single screen theater, where Baahubali: The Epic was playing. In the interval, they started playing the teaser of my film and the way the crowd reacted that day, it went nuts! The teaser was received so well. People loved how Prabhas looked, they loved the vibe and the idea that this is the afterlife. I just calmed down from that moment and felt this is going to work," smiles the director, who will put his "complete focus" on developing two parts of Baahubali: The Eternal War for the next four years.
