After Baahubali, I didn’t know what to do, says Prabhas

Telugu star Prabhas will be seen on the big screen with Saaho, which is set for release tomorrow, after a gap of more than two years. More importantly, expectations from the film are very high after his previous film Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) became a monumental hit.

During a press interaction for Saaho, Prabhas said dealing with such a massive hit is more difficult than dealing with flops. “A flop is much easier [to deal with] because you have already lost. So anything you gain is beautiful. Now, Rajamouli has given me Baahuabali. I didn’t know what to do now. So, we are banging our heads and trying to do our best,” he said, laughing. 

Baahubali made Prabhas a household name even outside South India. But the actor admitted the makers did not have great expectations of the first film, Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), in the North. “In the North we thought if we can get Rs30–40 crore it will be good for part two, so we can spend the money. But what a response we got!” he said.

Revealing some interesting details about the making of Baahubali, he said some portions of the second film were shot even before shooting for the first film began. “We actually started with part two," Prabhas said. "Devasena (Anushka Shetty) chopping [off] fingers is a famous scene. That was actually the seventh or eighth day shoot. So for 15–20 days we shot part two. Then we started part one. Then the budget went so high we thought we should just complete part one [first].”

Baahubali was a rare film that did well throughout India and Prabhas emphasized that language should not be a barrier and there should be more pan-India films, like in countries like the US and China. “They are one country with one language. We have 100 languages here. We have so many big markets like Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi, definitely it’s going to be soon," he said. "Like KGF (2018) did in Karnataka, tomorrow Punjab might give you the world’s biggest film. Any which way we are part of one country.”

Directed by Sujeeth and also starring Shraddha Kapoor, Saaho is set for release on 30 August.