S. S. Rajamouli, born Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli on October 10, 1973, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works primarily in Telugu cinema. He is best known for his high fantasy and period films, including Magadheera, which premiered at the American Fantastic Fest; Eega, which won Most Original Film at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival; Baahubali: The Beginning, which was nominated for an American Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film; and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which won the American Saturn Award for Best International Film and the Australian Telstra People’s Choice Award.
Career
Under the supervision of K. Raghavendra Rao, Rajamouli began directing Telugu soap operas on ETV. He later directed K. Raghavendra Rao’s TV series Santhi Nivasam. Student No.1, starring Jr. NTR, was his first Telugu film. Rajamouli’s second film, Simhadri, was two years in the making. Rajamouli planned his first mythological feature with Malayalam actor Mohanlal during the two-year hiatus between Student No. 1 and Simhadri, but the project was ultimately cancelled.
Manu Jagath, who eventually went on to work as the art director for Baahubali, published many designs for the stalled Mohanlal movie in 2015. Sye starred Nithin and Genelia D’Souza and was Rajamouli’s third film.
Rise to stardom
In 2015, he directed the epic action movie Baahubali: The Beginning, which became India’s second highest-grossing film of all time and the highest-grossing Indian film of all time within the country. Sanjeev Bhaskar directed a BBC documentary called 100 Years of Indian Cinema, which chronicled the making of the epic film.
The Arri Alexa XT was used to film Rajamouli’s debut film with a digital camera. Rajamouli’s work has been mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, and The Huffington Post. The film was nominated for four Saturn Awards at the 42nd Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films in Los Angeles, California.
