Rajamouli is frank and forthright. In this interview, the ace director confesses to feeling arrogant at times as he is a mere human. But he is lucky to have in his family protectors and disciplinarians. There is more. Read on..

Excerpts:

It's not just grandeur and richness that have made 'Baahubali' what it is today. It's the characters, their strength and they way they have been conceived.

When people enjoy a film while watching it, you call it good film. When they talk about it later as well, you call it great cinema. The lion's share for making this happen should go to Nanna garu, who conceived the characters.

It's inappropriate to call 'Baahubali-2' a sequel. I couldn't tell the whole story in just one part and that's why we went for a second part.

I ruminated over whether it should be a straight narration or a narration coming with a flashback. After much thinking over it, I decided to go for a flashback. That's how the episodes related to Baahubali's murder come in the second part.

It was completely unexpected that the question of why Kattappa killed Baahubali exploded like an atom bomb. When I ended the first part at that point, it was expected to only give a jerk.

What makes a film a success is not the suspense, but the drama. How it's told is what matters.

The Indian audience have previously warmed up to many Hollywood films which threw up unanswered questions in their first part. So, leaving unanswered questions like why Kattappa killed Baahubali didn't create anxiety in us.

I must say that I have started to feel tensed now that work part is over. When I kept on working, there was only excitement.

The reason why 'Baahubali' has given me utmost satisfaction as a filmmaker is that it's a character-based, not just a hero-centric, story. There are 6-7 characters which are very crucial. They come with their own strength. As for heroism, which is my favourite aspect, it is taken to the peaks. That's the brandwidth of the story that Nanna garu wrote.

As far as I am concerned, 'Baahubali' is just one film. Only that I narrated it in two parts. So, no major changes were thought to be made to the story after after the first part's release. Fine-tuning of, say, action sequences alone was thought of.

Emotions are the crux. What a character demands is what is shown. It's not like a character is degraded or upgraded for the sake of it.

I was never under pressure even after the first part's success. The story has got the required graph to take care of the second part. There is enough drama in it. There was no need to do anything additional.

How the collaboration between me and Nanna garu works is that he creates the characters, writes about their backdrop, details their origins, etc. I come up with what kind of conflict should be there between them, etc. His writing poses questions. Later on, I and him work towards finding answers.
No director can ever realize his vision cent per cent. Visualization is a mental process and it has no limits.

I am proud of the fact that 'Baahubali' has become a phenomenon for foreigners who used to see a Shah Rukh Khan as synonymous with Indian cinema previously. It was totally unexpected. When we went to South Korea, people could identify us.

I have been to Los Angeles. I think the work culture in Hollywood is radically different from what is seen here.

It was 'Mayabazar' which has had a great impact on me. I was bowled over when I watched it even as a kid. Even after becoming a director, I banged my head trying to understand how a photographic marvel of a scene could be done with the technology available decades ago. The first song introduces major characters in a space of two minutes, saving a lot of screen time.

Prabhas is the reason, after my producers and my family, why I could do this film. He was there totally dedicated. He would even write about what he understood about the characters, raise questions about them and such. When it was being shot, I could answer everything that the artistes asked about the character.

It's not true that I am going to make 'Mahabharatham' next. I don't have the energy to make it for the next ten years. Neither do I have the skillset for that at the moment.

It's human to feel pride (after getting this kind of name). But I am glad that my family members help me stay humble.

It's good that the governments have allowed extra shows (in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh). It would be better if five shows becomes the norm. Anyways, it's allowed in multiplexes. Why not allow it everywhere. Four shows is obsolete. It used to be the case when population and cinegoing populace were far lesser.

The actual run-time of 'Baahubali-2' is 2:41 hrs. We wanted to give credit to everyone and so the end credits consume 5.50 minutes. The Thank You credits in the beginning are 1.50 minutes.