Award made us more responsible: Shobu

Hyderabad: Well, it’s that time of the year when the best in showbiz across the country in various languages is honoured. After winning nationwide acclaim, Telugu film ‘Baahubali’ once again made a splash countrywide for winning a National Award in the category of ‘Best Film’. The 63rd National Film Awards announced by the Govt. of India on Monday was a special day for the Telugu film industry, as Rajamouli’s magnum opus became the first Telugu film to win a National Award in the ‘Best Film’ category.

Overwhelmed with the news, one of the film’s producers Shobu Yarlagadda ascribes the success to team effort. “We are surprised and elated! We always knew we would be in contention for top awards and hope we might get it but never expected to walk away with ‘Best Film’ honors. This project would not have been possible without Rajamouli – he’s the captain of the ship.

Then there’s Prabhas, Anushka and Tamannaah, and off-course the entire technical team stood like a pillar of support. So the National Award for us (‘Baahubali’) is just a reflection of a great team work. We all worked as a cohesive unit. The fact that ‘Baahubali’ is the first film in Telugu to receive a National Award makes it extra special. I’m thrilled and it’s the icing on the cake. It’s really a proud moment for all of us,” explains Shobu.

But does the award put pressure on them for the second part? “Well, (smiles), yeah it does. After getting such a huge reception all over India, there’s definitely pressure on us to deliver and surpass the first part. But that’s how it is, we know we have our task cut out and this National Award only makes us more responsible. We are working very hard to live up to the expectations of the sequel,” he replies.

Prod the producer on what might have worked in favor of the epic drama, “I guess it’s the engaging storytelling, grandeur and the way the film was marketed in various languages did the trick for us, particularly in Hindi. A dubbed film (Hindi) for the first time grossed more than 100 cr and that itself speaks volumes about our film.

Also, we entered into strategic partnerships with several stakeholders (distributors) to reach out to all the corners because we believe the film’s plotline has universal appeal and the potential to reach beyond one set of audience. I’m glad that our belief has paid off,” he reasons.

‘Baahubali’ also scored another award in Best Special Effects category. Srinivas Mohan, the film’s VFX Supervisor believes out-of- the-box thinking did the trick. “When we first heard that literally every scene has to undergo computer Graphics (CG) and there are thousands of elements to be created in a frame, we felt it was a first-of-its-kind.

Since 90% of this film is digital, Senthil and Sabu Cyril contributions were vital in making ‘Baahubali’ a visual splendor. Rajamouli’s vision was big that we could only create 65-70% of it but he was there for all the scenes – right from framing to Vfx,” says the three-time National Award winner.