Baahubali feat keeps epic fiction on the roll

Historical fiction films seem to be the new favourite among filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Tales of kings and queens, larger than life characters, grandiose sets and immaculately choreographed battle scenes are a few ingredients that go into making an engaging epic drama today. S S Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali – The Conclusion’ the highest grossing film in Tamil Nadu, has paved the way for more in the genre, with many filmmakers from the South joining the bandwagon with their own scripts of historical-fictions. The ones in the pipeline are Sundar C’ ‘Sanghamitra’, a first-of-a-kind in Tamil; V A Shrikumar Menon’s ‘Mahabharata’ starring Mohanlal, R S Vimal’s Karnan and Allu Arvind’s ‘Ramayana’.

The trend of weaving scripts around the stories of kings, queens and warriors began with movies like ‘Mayabazaar’ (1957), ‘Karnan’ (1964) and ‘Bhakta Prahalad’ (1967). Themes of these films were inspired by folklore and mythology. B R Panthulu’s Karnan, a huge hit, was a trend-setter. Originally shot in Tamil, the movie was dubbed into Telugu and Hindi. Filmmaker A P Nagarajan also churned out a series of films on mythological themes including ‘

Sampoorna Ramayana

’ (1961), ‘Saraswathi Sabatham’ (1966), ‘Kandhan Karunai’ (1967) and Rajaraja Cholan (1973). The trend was reinvented by S S Rajamouli in his 2009 film ‘Magadheera’. The movie chronicled the story of a brave warrior who is born after 400 years to reunite with his beloved. Then followed films like ‘Arundhati’ (2009), ‘Rudhramadevi’ (2015) and ‘Baahubali – The Beginning’ (2015) — all blockbusters. The rest, as they say, is history.

But what makes the genre a crowd-puller? Film critic V M S

Subhagunarajan

says native stories and characterisation strike a chord with the audience. "Whether it is Arundhati or Baahubali, everything about them is Indian. Sci-fi movies are rarely a hit here as people are unable to associate with them. They want to see their own superheroes. Stories from epics and folklores fulfill that purpose. Be it Ram, Hanuman or Murugan, Indian mythology doesn’t have a dearth of superheroes." Subhagunarajan says Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan is a classic ingredient for such movies as it provides a local narrative set in the Chola period.

A bulk of historic dramas revolve around native narratives, reflecting the socio-cultural background of ancient India. Film historian Vamanan says the success of historical-fictions mirrors the revival of people’s pride in their culture. "Directors like Rajamouli are taking an effort to travel back in time to find the soul of Indian culture and portray it on screen through movies. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata have set the benchmark high for the country’s culture and tradition," he says.

Nevertheless, technology is the driving factor behind the success of historic dramas, which help in recreating a period that audience have never seen before. "The excitement of watching a long lost time is what appeals to the audience. Although the logic behind stunt sequences in these films is questionable, viewers subconsciously ignore them, as the stunts gel well with the larger than life characters in the films," says film critic Hariharan. With most of the shooting done with a green screen background, filmmakers, however, say producing such films is a tedious process.

With historical-dramas being big-budget movies, distributors say the financing part is not a problem today due to the ready availability of corporates funding and low-interest finance for scripts. "The financing solely depends on the director and the depth of the script. The script should have all elements to cater to a global audience. Films about mythology and epics solve the purpose," says Singaravelan, founder of

Marina Pictures

, who distributed Baahubali 2 in Salem.