UPDATE: It’s been announced that “VARANASI” is set to hit theaters on April 7, 2027 in IMAX.
EARLIER: SS Rajamouli: Did we expect anything less than excess for his next movie? The filmmaker whose “RRR” was heralded by critics, audiences and even had A-list directors, like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, James Gunn, and JJ Abrams, praising it to the high heavens. He lived the Hollywood dream between 2022 and 2023.
Well, Rajamouli shot a new film. It’s being described as a dream project that will be the biggest and costliest Indian film ever made; A “globe-trotting adventure” that will see production travel through the forests of Kenya, among other exotic locations.
Earlier today, Rajamouli announced the film will be titled “Varanasi,” and subsequently released posters , first images and a near 4-minute teaser for it. Furthermore, the filmmaker announced that his upcoming epic was “filmed for IMAX.”
Mahesh Babu, Chatrapathi Sekhar, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas star in the film, and apparently they’ve been shooting for almost a year now. Reports suggest that Rajamouli has made his cast and crew sign an NDA, adhering to complete confidentiality while the film is being shot.
Production is set to continue until 2026, with plans to release it as two three-hour movies starting in 2027. With Rajamouli, it’s go big or go home. He’s all about excess, with no room for subtlety whatsoever — and that’s part of the reason western audiences fell for “RRR,” which refuses to be anything but what it is.
As popular as Rajamouli might be with Indian audiences, RRR” came out of nowhere in 2022 — not many expected western audiences to turn it into a major hit on Netflix. It came close to cultural phenomenon status, starting out slow in the spring of 2022, but topping the streaming charts, and amassing enough fans by the end of the year that it turned into an Oscar contender. Just last week, Jesse Eisenberg shared love for “RRR” by telling Indian media “every American has seen that movie.”
On Critics Top 10, which compiles all of the year’s ten best lists, “RRR” was the ninth most listed film of 2022, appearing on 269 critics lists. It went as far as the New York Film Critics Circle giving Rajamouli their Best Director award that year.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.