'Baahubali' v/s 'Puli' - 5 C's of Possible Comparison

Much has been spoken about the worldwide success of 'Baahubali' and the film is marching towards Rs.500 crores in theatrical collections thereby becoming India's most profitable film ever. The film was made as a Telugu-Tamil bilingual and dubbed in various languages. The historical fantasy presented with grandeur, visual effects, and computer graphics was made at a huge budget and has already collected double of what has been invested.

Within few months after the release of 'Baahubali', we are going to see another grand budget fantasy film 'Puli' with Vijay in the lead. Though the makers of 'Puli' have ruled out any comparison with 'Baahubali', the success of the S.S. Rajamouli-directed visual spectacle is bound to have a lasting impact on the way Indian films, especially the Tamil films that too under the historical, mythical and fantasy genres.

Comparisons are bound to rise in the minds of audience and critics and with the information available about 'Puli', here we are presenting what can be the similarities and differences between 'Baahubali' and 'Puli'.

Content

'Baahubali' story was penned by Rajamouli's father V.Vijayendra Prasad and it is complete fantasy and fictional. The Magizhmathi kingdom, the lead characters and the locations are all fictional and the entire film is set in the kingship era.

'Puli' being promoted as a fantasy flick, but fantasy will be a portion in it and we have to wait and see how much of the story will be set in fantasy backdrop and how much will run in the contemporary period. It is being rumored that 35 minutes of the film's running time will be set in fantasy period setting. There are also unconfirmed reports that suggest there will be dwarf characters in the film that will add up to the fantasy element like the 'Kalakeya' tribe in 'Baahubali'.

And, there are varying reports about the fantasy kingdom that will be coming in 'Puli'. Some say it is a time travel subject and the lead character goes to the period of kings and queens while others say it will be a story of a man and his previous birth where probably the story of kings and queens takes place.

CGI

Visual effects and computer graphics played a vital role in making 'Baahubali' a visual spectacle. Thousands of people seem to have worked in these departments for three years to make this film a reality.

R. Kamalakannan who is in charge of Computer Generated Imagery for 'Puli' has said the CGI work is happening in six places - Netherlands, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Chennai and Bangalore and 160 freelance animators have been involved in this work at these six places. Kamalakannan has surprised everyone by saying that the CGI scenes used in 'Puli' will be 2,200 while for 'Baahubali' it was just about 2,000.

He also revealed that the team will work to make those created in CG in the film look as real as there were complaints about CG being evident in certain scenes in 'Baahubali'.

Cast

Both 'Baahubali' and 'Puli' are multi-starrers. The former had Prabhas as the hero, Rana another hero material playing the negative role, Ramya Krishanan as Rajamatha, Tamannaah as heroine, Anushka as hero's mother (assumable) and Sathyaraj as the patriotic warrior.

'Puli' has a superstar like Vijay playing the lead role and his connection to the fantasy setting of the film is yet to be known. Sridevi who makes a grand comeback to Tamil films reportedly plays queen and as per the revelation of the film's producer's she rejected the role offered in 'Baahubali', but accepted 'Puli'. The film has three heroines. News reports suggest that Hansika is the daughter of Sridevi in the film and Nanditha has also confirmed that her character that comes in the fantasy setting of the film. The role of Shruti is yet to be ascertained and we have to wait to know whether she will come in the contemporary setting or fantasy setting of the film or both.

From the teaser it has become evident that Sudeep is playing the negative role and comes in the fantasy setting.

It would also be interesting to see a superstar like Vijay working in a fantasy subject for the first time and how it satisfies his huge number of fans for which the film should definitely have the 'mass' quotient needed for a Vijay film. Chimbudevan has assured that the film will be a path-breaking one, but will have everything one would expect in a Vijay film.

Costumes

The costumes worn in 'Baahubali' had great resemblance to the general perception of what would have been worn by Indian kings and queens and the people living during the kingship era. However, experts say that the costumes worn by warriors and kings during the long war scene at the climax had resemblances to the costumes worn by Scottish warriors. The costumes worn by characters coming in the fantasy part in 'Puli' (including Sridevi who plays a queen) relatively lack the ethnic feel. Maybe the costumes are also elements of fantasy to convey that the kingdom does not belong to any particular country or time period. We have to wait and watch.

Creator

Director S.S. Rajamouli, the man behind 'Baahubali' has directed ten films so far and all of them have been super-hits. He has worked in two fantasy flicks before 'Baahubali'. 'Magadheera' had a period setting and 'Naan Ee' had a fantasy element that made us believe that a bee can avenge a man. Both these films were blockbusters.

Director Chimbudevan has directed lesser number of films, but not new to historical fiction or fantasy. His debut film 'Imsai Arasan 23aam Pulikesi' was a historical fiction laced with comedy and it was a super-hit and successfully launched comedian Vadivelu as a lead hero. His third film 'Irumbukottai Murattu SIngam' had a great mix of fantasy adventure elements and that film was also a super hit.

Within September, we will get to know how