Baahubali releases to massive response

It's touted as the most expensive film yet to be produced in India at an estimated cost of Rs2.5 billion.

Hyderabad - The much-hyped and eagerly-awaited multi-lingual film Baahubali was released across hundreds of theatres in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and in several parts of the world on Friday with thousands of frenzied fans thronging the theatres and multiplexes hours before the release.
Touted as the most expensive film yet to be produced in India at an estimated cost of Rs2.5 billion, the action-packed two-part period film is directed by ace director S S Rajamouli, known as the man with the Midas touch, and has leading Telugu actors Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka, Tamannah and Ramya Krishna playing the main characters. The second part of the film is likely to be released in 2016. Prior to this magnum opus, Rajamouli had directed blockbusters like Magadheera in 2009 and "Eega" (2012).
The movie was released in four Indian languages simultaneously - Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. And, it will be released in Chinese and Japanese in a couple of months.
In Hyderabad, utter chaos prevailed in several theatres and multiplexes where the film was released with fans disappointed at not getting tickets giving vent by pelting stones. In several places, police had to intervene to disperse the crowds.
There were allegations that several theatre managements were hand in glove with black-marketers, selling blocks of tickets to the latter who allegedly sold them at rates ranging from Rs2,000 to a whopping Rs5,000.
The advance booking of tickets for the film witnessed a scramble ahead of the release.
The rush for online booking led to crashing of computer servers in some places and serpentine queues were seen at cinema halls and multiplexes.
The makers of the film are very confident that Baahubali would be a benchmark in the history of the Telugu film industry fgoing by the pre-release hype and response.
The film took all of 733 days of shooting, involved 1,000 technicians working on the visual effects (VFX) which is touted as the highlight of the film and had over 2,500 junior artistes participating in the war scenes at 100 acres of land in Ramoji Film City (RFC) near Hyderabad and in Kurnool district. At RFC, a 20-acre maize farm was created and cultivated for the real feel in the film.

• South Stars