Ala Baahubali, Prabhas toiled hard to achieve superstardom

It wasn’t a cake walk for action star Prabhas, since he had to sweat it out to reach this enviable position in T-town. Unlike, few other star kids like Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan and Allu Arjun, he didn’t attain stardom overnight, but had to struggle his way to the top.

To begin with his debut film ‘Eashwar’ tanked at the box-office, followed by another dud ‘Raghavendra’, but it was runaway hit ‘Varsham’, which gave him the much-needed break. “True that he had humble beginnings, but I discovered that Prabhas was a star material while working with him in `Varsham’ but now his popularity has soared beyond Tollywood and Bollywood and expanded to foreign soils,” says producer M S Raju, who made ‘Varsham’.

Before Prabhas could enjoy his success, two other flops ‘Chakram’ and `Adavi Ramudu’, pulled him back into doldrums. However, ace director Rajamouli cast him in the role of a defiant Sri Lankan refugee and established him as a ‘larger-than-life’ hero with ‘Chatrapathi’.

“It was heady combination of Prabhas-Rajamouli and it turned out to be a roaring hit. I am also glad that I could make another super hit film ‘Darling’. Prabhas versatility was established in contrasting roles-angry-young-man as well as a lover boy,’ says top-notch producer Bogavalli Prasad.

After miserable flops like ‘Munna’ and ‘Bujjigadu’, young director Meher Ramesh gave him a complete make-over and introduced him as a suave, handsome and gun-trotting don in ‘Billa’ and his fan following almost doubled. “We wanted a different look and styling for the film and Prabhas hit the gym for his carved physique and his trendy look fetched him huge fan following,” says director Meher Ramesh.

Sharing details about his rise in stardom over the years, distributor Bharat Bushan adds “Prabhas’ films began to cross Rs 30 crore mark with ‘Mr Perfect’ and touched a milestone with blockbuster ‘Mirchi’ which grossed more than Rs 45 crore and catapulted him into the big league and now Rs 200 core-plus ‘Baahubali’ took him to the top ,” he adds.

With Rajamouli acknowledging Prabhas’s growing popularity pan-India, when he said that Prabhas received applause from the media persons in Mumbai, it’s seems that long cherished dream of Krishna Raju’s nephew for superstardom has finally landed in his lap, albeit, after some struggles.

BVS Prakash