Mani Ratnam on record stated that there is no Ponniyin Selvan 1 & 2 without magnum opus Baahubali 1 & 2. He openly gave credit to SS Rajamouli for his path breaking Baahubali that erased the borders and language barriers and took the south films a notch above. Inspired by Rajamouli’s Baahubali, Mani Ratnam started PS 1 & PS 2.
However, a maverick filmmaker and genius like Mani Ratnam couldn’t recreate the magic Rajamouli created in Indian Cinema. However, the story of Ponniyin Selvan is huge and it is much more pivotal compared to the fictional story of Baahubali. Whereas Mani Ratnam somehow couldn’t translate this epic on screen well despite having a stellar cast.
As PS 2 is all set to hit the screens in a couple of days, what is lacking is the buzz. Whereas Baahuabli and RRR fever gripped the nation ahead of their releases. While PS 2 has a good buzz in Tamil, it doesn’t have the desired craze in Telugu and other languages. The trailer of PS2 couldn’t leave the mark compared to Baahubali 2 and RRR.
In fact, not just Mani Ratnam, several filmmakers were inspired from Rajamouli’s Baahubali. Gunasekhar’s Rudhramadevi and Shaakuntalam were also scaled, mounted higher considering Rajamouli’s film. Shankar’s 2.0 was also inspired after Rajamouli enhanced the markets. Now Shankar has set his focus on Gamechanger with Ram Charan and Indian 2 with Kamal Haasan.
Certainly, Rajamouli is the torchbearer who inspired several filmmakers to push the boundaries and envelope further and thus create magic. Most importantly, he managed to secure an Oscar award for RRR’s song Naatu Naatu under the original song category. All this Rajamouli made it single-handedly without anyone’s support from the industry or the government by applying in private category. One must admit that Rajamouli deserves all the credit for his accomplishments. That is why he is one and only SS Rajamouli who is highly passionate about films and filmmaking yet most humble, grounded.
Tags Gamechanger Gunasekhar Maniratnam Ponniyan Selvan Shankar