Description
Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli, popularly known as SS Rajamouli, is an iconic Indian film director and screenwriter. His name resonates with grandeur, fantasy, and larger-than-life cinema. Let’s delve into the life and achievements of this remarkable filmmaker
Untold Story
SS Rajamouli is a name with whom even the famous directors of Hollywood and the biggest actors of Bollywood dream of working. Because while Bollywood films face trouble just in finding their budget, the films made under the direction of SS Rajamouli go ahead by breaking all the earning records. But the question arises that who is this Rajamouli? How he came out of poverty and made his career in film direction and how much truth is there in the fact that he has not given a single flop film in his career.
Let us know everything. So friends, do you know the full name of SS Rajamouli, who is considered the most expensive director of the country? This is Srisailam Sri Rajamouli. Born in 1973 in a village named Amareshwar Camp in Karnataka, Rajamouli’s father is screenwriter V Vijayendra Prasad. Well, if you are fond of South Indian films then you must know his father. Because he has written the scripts of many hit movies like Triple R, Bahubali and Magadheera. Well, if we talk about the early life of SS Rajamouli ji, even though he is very rich today, it was not always like this.
Actually, Rajamouli ji’s grandfather was a very rich and landed man who owned about 360 acres of land and at that time the life of the family was going very well. But father and uncle were so obsessed with making films that they sold all their land. And unfortunately, many of these films could not be completed and even if some were completed, they bombed so badly in theaters that their entire families came out on the streets.
After this failure, Rajamouli’s family was trapped in a huge death trap. After which the entire family had to move out of a big house and shift to a two-room apartment and 13 members of the family used to live in these two rooms. At that time, SS Rajamouli was only around 10 years old and this plight had a deep impact on his mind. Well, it took a long time for his family to get out of their circumstances and debt and in the meantime, Rajamouli’s twelfth studies were also completed. But the amazing thing was that such a big director of today’s time did not understand what he wanted to do in his life till his early days.
His father did not like this kind of carelessness regarding career at all. That’s why Rajamouli always had to listen to scoldings from them and his relatives also started enjoying this. That’s why whenever he came to his house, he would deliberately raise the question of what his son should do next. Now what is the answer to this? Neither Rajamouli nor his family members could understand this. Sometimes he would get fed up with such questions and say that he wants to become a music composer. Actually, Rajamouli had a very good bonding with his cousin MM Ravani and he had seen Kiravali being very passionate about music.
Now Rajamouli did not have any future plan of his own, so after getting inspired by him, he used to say that he will compose music in future. Well, this is the biggest worry for any parent when they see their child careless about his career. Vijayendra was also worried about this and this was the reason why the atmosphere in his house started becoming bad. In such a situation, to avoid his father’s scolding and anger, Rajamouli thought of working and started going to the sets with his father. Besides, he also used to take the scripts written by him or his father and narrate them to big directors.
Actually Rajamouli enjoyed storytelling a lot, because he loved listening and telling stories since childhood. In fact, when he turned seven years old, his grandmother started reciting Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita to him and at the same age, his father bought him books like Amar Chitra Katha. Rajamouli was also very fond of watching movies and he used to narrate the stories of movies to his friends in such an interesting way that it seemed as if everything was happening in front of his eyes.
And friends, due to this style of his, his storytelling was also liked a lot and then after working hard for some time, he got a chance to work under film editor K Venkateshwar Rao. After working here for about six months, he also worked for a few days in AVM Theater in Chennai and then helped his father in the work of direction for the next six years. Now, as I told you earlier also, in the beginning Rajamouli used to narrate the film scripts written by him or his father, but during that time, one thing always disappointed him was that other directors would twist the stories written by him according to their own.
They used to give it a different look which he did not like at all. And friends, it is this disappointment that motivated him to leave the writing job and direct the film so that he can present the story on screen in its natural form and reach it to the audience. However, this task was not easy at all, that too for someone who had just joined the film industry some time ago. To enter the field of direction, Rajamouli shifted from Chennai to Hyderabad and then started learning filmmaking from his relative Anonymous Ganga Raju, who was a director.
And then for the first time, he directed the Telugu TV serial Shanti Niwas produced by Raghavendra Rao along with Baramulla grandson. This time was very difficult for SS Rajamouli because he had to work on the sets for 17-18 hours every day. Due to which neither he was able to get time for his family nor he was able to pay attention to food or his health. Well, the result of his hard work was that in the year 2001, he got a project which changed his life. Actually, this year Rajamouli entered the Telugu film industry and started directing the first film of his career which was named Student Number One.
This film was also special because the lead hero of this film was Junior NTR, whose family had a very strong background in the film industry. Also, the first film of student number one Jr NTR was also going to happen. If there was any mistake in it, then there was a big threat to the career of Junior NTR and it was also possible that Rajamouli would also stop getting big projects. But the producer of this film had a lot of faith in Rajamouli. That is why the responsibility of launching Junior NTR was entrusted to him.
Later, when work on this film started, Rajamouli started feeling very regretful that he wished he had worked as an assistant director for a few more days because he faced many challenges while directing Student Number One. Had to go through. He didn’t even know how to use the crane to film the scene. He had to do it because he had never used it during TV serials and shooting films was very different from that. Well, somehow the film was completed and when it was released, it got a lot of praise from the audience.
Only positive feedback was received, after which Junior NTR became a star overnight. You can estimate the success of this film from the data that the budget of the film is only ₹ 1.85 crore. But it had earned ₹12 crores. The success of Student Number One changed the fortunes of Rajamouli and his family. After which many more great films started coming in his kitty. At the same time, the film producers were also convinced that he. Will not let their money sink. Now as I told you earlier also that Rajamouli loved to listen to the stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata from his grandmother, that is why he always used to stay in Main.
He got this opportunity to make mythological films and after Student became number one hit. For this, Rajamouli had also started preparations for his first mythological film with his favorite hero Malayalam star Mohanlal. But perhaps there was still time for this dream to be fulfilled, hence due to some reasons this film could never be made. Now friends, due to his hard work and good direction, Rajamouli had brightened the fortunes of Junior NTR but was yet to make him a superstar. Therefore, both of them collaborated once again and released the film Simhadri in 2003, which proved to be the biggest blockbuster of that year because the budget of this film was ₹ 8.5 crore.
But its total collection was ₹25.7 crore. After the success of this film, Junior NTR got so much popularity that everyone from children to older people in South India started recognizing him. Besides, Rajamouli’s career also got a big boost. In the year 2004, Rajamouli directed his third film Sign, which had Nithin Reddy and Genelia D’Souza in the lead roles. This film also proved to be such a hit. It won four Nandi Awards. Now friends, till now all Rajamouli’s films were successful in theatre.
But after this he directed a film whose story touched the hearts of people and the amazing thing is that the audience liked this film so much that it ran in theaters for a thousand days. Actually I am talking about the film Magadheera which was released in 2009 and I hope that most of you must have seen it at least once. This film is based on a historical love story whose writer is Rajamouli’s father Vijayendra Prasad. Magadheera proved to be South’s biggest hit film at that time, which also won two National Awards.
It was also among the highest grossing films at the box office in Japan at that time. Now friends, when a South movie becomes a hit, then how can our Bollywood people lag behind in copying it, that is why Boney Kapoor went after Rajamouli to sell its remake rights to him. However, this deal was never finalized. In fact, when Rajamouli made Vikram Murda in the year 2006, he understood that he should stop selling remake rights forever. If you don’t know about Vikram Murdas, then you must remember Akshay Kumar’s Rowdy Rathore. Actually this film was a remake of Vikram Murdo. After the making of this movie, Rajamouli started feeling that he was the only one who could justify the stories written by his father.
That is why he had decided then that he would not sell the remake rights of any film. Although he was getting very good offers for Magadheera but Rajamouli rejected all of them. After the success of Magadheera, Rajamouli became a big name in the South Film Industry because everyone knew that if a film is directed by Rajamouli then it does not matter who the actor is. All tickets are sold only in the name of the director. Rajamouli is such a personality who thinks completely out of the box and he does not shy away from working on such unusual ideas or scripts which any other director would say on hearing that it is going to be a big flop.
And friends, the result of his out-of-the-box ideas is the film Eega released in 2012, whose Hindi dubbed Makkhi you must have seen. Tell me, who could have thought that the film could be a hit even by placing a fly in the lead role. Rajamouli is the only one who can make a superhit film on such a concept. The duo of Rajamouli and his father together made many successful films and earned many times more than what they lost. Now he had both success and respect, but still he always remained down to earth. Whenever you see Rajamouli among four people, you will find that he blends with them in such a way that no one can imagine that he is such a great director.
Even after coming back, he gave a lot of priority to his work and kept presenting something new to the audience. But the turning point of his career was yet to come, which also told Bollywood how much he was in trouble. In fact, when SS Rajamouli brought Baahubali in the year 2015, it created a stir all over India. It was the highest-grossing Telugu film of that year and earned ₹75 crore worldwide on its first day, which is a record even today. The amazing thing is that this very film also started the Pan India trend because the people who liked this movie were not only the South Indian audience but there was a huge craze for it from all over India. .
And friends, this film not only proved to be a blockbuster but the audience started eagerly waiting for its second part to come. And until Baahubali 2 came out, only one question was trending on social media that why Kattappa killed Baahubali. Well, Baahubali 2 also proved to be a blockbuster and it also set new earning records. But friends, away from the glamor of all these things, Rajamouli had also started working on the story of a film which had made even Hollywood stars praise Indian cinema.
Actually, we are talking about the Triple R film released in 2022, which is based on the story of Indian Revolutionary and in which along with NTR Jr. and Ram Charan, Ajay Devgan and Alia Bhatt have also worked. Triple R was made for ₹500 crores, which is the most expensive Indian film till date and its global gross collection was ₹1300 crores. After the release of this film, Bollywood started getting taunts that they should learn something from South cinema. In fact, Triple R is the first film made in Indian production to be given an Academy Award.
Also, its Natu Natu song was the first song not only from India but also from Asia to be awarded the Oscar for Best Original Song. And friends, let us tell you that NATO NATO has been composed by Rajamouli’s cousin MM Sherawat, from whom he used to get inspired and talked about becoming a music composer. Well, Triple R won a total of six awards and gave recognition to the Indian film industry at the international level, which was a matter of pride for the whole of India. After the success of Triple R, the mindset of us Indians changed.
A perception started forming among us that now there is no Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood but now there is only Indian film industry. The amazing thing is that the Bollywood people who did not even talk directly to South actors or directors started becoming desperate to do films with them. Because while on one hand Bollywood was spoiling its reputation by continuously giving flop movies, on the other hand the films made under the direction of Rajamouli were being honored with international awards.
Now in the coming time, Rajamouli is going to bring many explosive films for the fans and some time ago he had also announced about a film named Made in India, which can be about the Indian film Mistry. By the way, why do all Rajamouli’s films become superhit? You must tell us your opinion by commenting.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the Success Story.
