'Baahubali' steered its way through many problems: Producer Shobu

Chennai: Producer Shobu Yarlagadda must be buoyed by the phenomenal success of S.S. Rajamouli's "Baahubali" franchise. But he says the film steered its way through many problems to emerge successful.

Speaking at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne which concludes on Tuesday, Yarlagadda spoke about the problems he faced while making his movies. Rajamouli and Yarlagadda had previously worked together in Ram Charan's "Magadheera".

Speaking on the length and budget of "Magadheera", he said: "The problem was the length - it couldn't fit into three hours. We weren't sure to let go of the story.

"That's why we thought to do it as a two-part film. Rajamouli wanted to go back and try to accommodate it in a three-hour single film, but we stopped him from doing so."

The team had to face a lot of problems before the release of "Magadheera", but Rajamouli's confidence helped steer through the obstacles.

"I had confidence in Rajamouli. The challenge was timeline and to stick to the budget. But we did surpass our deadline and budget. It started as a Rs 120 crore project and then it went further. We always knew the film had to be pan-India. It did get a North Indian release but it wasn't justified I believe," he said.

The planning changed for "Baahubali".

"But for 'Baahubali', we started working on the Hindi release right from the first day and knew we had to do more to make it work pan India," he added.

From the beginning, "Baahubali" was planned as a two-part film.

"We realised when the script was ready that there is so much from 'Baahubali' that can be told and not everything could be put into the film. So we started exploring options and putting things in place from when we started," he said.

The "Baahubali" franchise is India's biggest blockbuster with worldwide earnings of over Rs 900 crore.