It was 2018 when Netflix announced that there will be a prequel to the grand “Baahubali” duology and was even named. It was supposed to be a series with the name, “Baahubali- Before The Beginning” which would have told the story of Sivagami that was earlier played by Ramya Krishnan in the movies. Reports were flooding in 2019 that the shooting was complete and would now go into the post production, but after that there was no news of it whatsoever. In June, this year we reported that Netflix wasn’t happy with certain parts and there were talks of some episodes to be reshot. But that was it for the series at that point.
Now fresh news has emerged that the entire series that was shot has been scrapped off and everything will be started afresh. The cast, directors, other technical teams will be onboard for the latest project. The reason behind the complete scrapping of the series is the fact Netflix didn’t feel like it could do justice to the movies at any point. Both the movies having such grandeur in it, needs to have a prequel that could do some kind of justice to it.
As the sources are saying, a whole new team is being put together to completely restart the project from scratch so that it can at least lead up to what the movies have been. Earlier the series was directed by Deva Katta and Praveen Sataru and now it will be directed by a new director whose name is yet to be revealed. It is said that Rajamouli will again supervise the series closely and also act as the showrunner for the series. The new cast is currently being locked in; earlier Mrunal Thakur, Rahul Bose and Anup Soni were casted as the leads of the show.
As far as the prequel goes, it is hard to meet the expectation after the success Baahubali has received and it seems like it is next to impossible to have the same vision as compared to the films. SS Rajamouli at the moment is known to be busy with his next high budget film RRR. This means that even though he is brought in as a supervisor, he still might not be able to give it the time that it requires from him to turn the series into as grand a success as the movies. Also, not to forget Rajamouli’s team consists of family members which gives him a bonus when it comes to work behind the screen. They carry out a complete thorough research on whatever needs to go on the screen.
The series is supposed to have 2 seasons, with the first season having 9 episodes and based on the journey of Sivagami becoming what she is from where she started. The series will show the rise of Mahishmati from being city-state to a powerful empire. The series is now in pre production and will take the floor by April or May next year.
With Rajamouli not heading the project, it is hard to say if Netflix will be satisfied enough with this series and will the results be grand enough as compared to the movies, only time can give the answer.