A Brand called SS Rajamouli

Let me put a foreword at the outset that this is not a review of Rajamouli's magnum opus Bahubali, neither do I intend to watch it anytime sooner nor was I ever a fan of his work. What fascinates me is his journey from movie to movie and building a formidable brand which could resonate across every Telugu speaking belt in the world (and now across Indian diaspora, hopefully). More than his cinematic genius, I'm awestruck by the way he planned and executed his success story in his own terms.

Though I'm nobody to comment or criticize Rajamouli's talent and body of work because the world had already put him on pedestal showing his near universal acceptance, his style of films are not my cup of tea. He seemingly pushed forward the Raghavendra Rao or B.Gopal schools of hero oriented, grand visuals based movies which drove me off Telugu movies in early 90's. I always enjoyed more subtle, light hearted, dialogue driven movies of K.Viswananth, Vijayabhaskar, Sekhar Kammula, Imtiaz Ali, Raju Hirani on one extreme and more gritty, hard hitting crime thrillers of Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Madhur Bhandarkar on the other. Rajamouli falls somewhere in between and I personally felt dialogues or conversations in his movies always have been his achilles heel.

But as agreed earlier, my opinion won't take away anything from him as his fans would vouch for (and some may even bay for my blood) and this article is not about merits and demerits of his movies but his entrepreneurial skills and his ability to convert his passion into a strong brand which is a case study for even IIM or Harvard students.


His first few movies, though absolute money spinners were more pandering his heroes and their maniac fanbase. Those flicks helped those lead actors expand their demigod status. Though skeptics might not have liked those movies, he became an household name by then.

But magadheera changed the entire canvass. Though the second half period drama and visuals were epic, the contemporary setting was quite ordinary. But the movie showcased how effective a showman can be he. The movie rampaged all box office records, well galvanized by chiranjeevi's fans. Till Magadheera, Rajamouli was only a creative master and a visual epic story teller but he did not make any conscious effort to build brand Rajamouli.

His next movie was a textbook guide for brand building. By making maryada ramanna with a relatively smaller budget and smaller starcast, he'd hit the bulls eye. He successfully toned down expectations after the mega hit which many other talented filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowariker miserably failed at. With maryada ramanna, Rajamouli made a glaring statement that he could still be a showman with smaller starcast - first departure from his hero orientation obsession. By then, he was already a brand which was proven by the success of son of sardar, a poorly made remake of supposedly second league movie by Rajamouli. That along with success of Rowdy Rathore, another remake of his work, paved the way to his recognition nationwide.

Subsequently, Eega made his invincible. The movie showcased his technical finesse and ability to plunder box office with no star power. Nationwide audiences again approved of notwithstanding poor collections in the northern belt. But Rajamouli made right noises across trade pundits all over the world.

Making of Bahubali is more epic than the movie itself. Rajamouli knew it would take a couple of years but he began the PR blitz right after inception of the movie. He made people anticipate, film industry wait, ensured everybody knew about the movie. Even Amitabh, Rajnikanth couldn't wait and made favorable statements. Icing on the cake was to rope in Karan Johar to present the Hindi version. Already planned as a multi lingual, Karan Johar's brand association made the movie much bigger across not just India but also among diaspora.

The movie will be a sure shot earth shattering, thundering blockbuster. No second thoughts about that. The movie will be review-proof, critic-proof, piracy-proof, negativity-proof because he was successful in bringing his spectators and audiences aboard the journey of making that they started feeling Bahubali is their own product. Most sensible and movie loving audiences will voluntarily avoid piracy, spread positive talk regardless of the content. THAT IS SUCCESS. And that is BRAND RAJAMOULI.

As a telugu speaking person, I'm proud of the scale, podium and canvass Bahubali will be released and hopefully accepted across. Wish the movie rings the Telugu movie bell across worldwide movie fans.