Enter The Villain

Bad is really hot, says Ashwini Deshmukh after her chat with the awesome Bhallaladeva – Rana Daggubati

Every hero needs a villain. Lord Ram had Raavan. Achilles needed Hector. Superman needed Doomsday. It’s the antagonist, who speeds up the making of a hero. In the Baahubali universe, Bhallaladeva is the villain. He’s the nemesis of Baahubali. While Baahubali invites adoration, Bhallaladeva evokes fear. It’s a challenge to play such a character but Rana Daggubati lived the character for five years. That he chose the negative role shows how confident he was of the franchise.

The first Baahubali film went on to collect some 650 crores worldwide while the second, Baahubali: The Conclusion gathered over 1500 crores. Rana’s overwhelmed with the outcome, “What Baahubali films have done is given us the confidence that if you create good cinema, there is a country full waiting to watch it. That gives us the power to dream big and go forward.”

It must have been hard to play an evil character but Rana insists the script was clear about how to play Bhallaladeva. “We’ve all grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha and those characters have stayed with us. That was the key point for us in terms of references. Classics like Ramayana or The Mahabharata were the inspiration from where we drew material.”