‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’: 5 must-watch films of SS Rajamouli before catching the film

In just a few days, SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ will finally hit theatre screens worldwide. The movie has been receiving an insane amount of hype, all thanks to the brilliant storyline and content of the film which is the real winner, and the man responsible for that is its ace director. Rajamouli has become one of the most respected directors in Tollywood as he never shies away from experimenting with his films. Here are 5 such movies of the Telugu giant that you must catch before the watching the epic…

SS Rajamouli’s debut film earned him many accolades and launched him into the big league. It also happened to be the debut film for lead actor Jr NTR, that went on to become the film that shaped his career and made him into the star he is today. ‘Student No 1’ was a coming of age musical drama about a criminal facing a murder charge, who gets to attend a law college with special permission from the authorities. The story deals with the protagonist’s past as he also tries his best to reform his unruly fellow students. Needless to say, this was a movie ahead of its time considering it came out in 2001 and won the hearts of fans and critics alike.

Another commercial milestone for Rajamouli was ‘Vikramarkudu’ which released in 2006. Starring Ravi Teja, it followed the story of dual identities, one being a thief named Sathi Babu and the other being a daredevil cop named Vikram Singh Rathod. Things get complicated when Sathi finds a little girl who calls him father, who in fact is the daughter of the cop. The rest of the story is about how the thief fights for justice of the girl’s father who is killed by a corrupt politician. ‘Vikramarkudu’ was later remade in Tamil as ‘Siruthai’ and in Hindi as 'Rowdy Rathore' starring Akshay Kumar.

This socio-fantasy film was the beginning of Rajamouli’s experimental phase. ‘Yamadonga’ is a comic take on the mythology of Yamaloka. It stars Jr NTR as Raja, a petty thief who ends up in Yamaloka. There, he steals the Yamapasam, a powerful artifact that makes the possessor the king of hell. This leads to a comic power struggle in the Yamaloka as Yama and Raja fight for dominance. Overall, it was a rather funny take on mythology that Tollywood had never seen before. Thanks to the unique story and great performances the film won good critical acclaim and became one of the biggest hits of 2007.

Perhaps one of the biggest hits of his career before ‘Baahubali’, ‘Magadheera’ was the closest thing to an "epic" at the time of its release. Following the story of love and reincarnation, it tells the tale of two lovers who failed to unite in the past life and are reincarnated in present times where they come to realise their past identities. The film was highly praised for the sets, costumes and VFX of the ancient kingdom of Udayghar, as it was actually well done for its time and budget. Thanks to ‘Magadheera’, Telugu cinema became more open to doing films with greater production value which ultimately led to the creation of an epic franchise like ‘Baahubali’.

Reincarnation being one of the favourite themes of the ace director, ‘Eega’ too was not an exception. This movie is a bizarre tale of Nani who is in love with a girl named Sindu. However, a millionaire named Sudeep lusts after her and seeing Nani as competition, kills him. Nani is then reincarnated as a housefly and he then exacts his revenge on Sudeep. Only a visionary like Rajamouli can come up with something so outlandish and still make it commercially entertaining. Needless to say, the entire cast of ‘Eega’ shot to fame in Tollywood after the film’s astounding success.