Ram Gopal Varma dissects 'pan-India' blockbusters: Not everyone can do a SS Rajamouli

Is it pan-India? This seems to be the dominating question across all the production houses in India. Filmmaker SS Rajamouli redefined the very idea of a blockbuster with his movie, Baahubali 2. He showed everyone the true strength of India's domestic box office market. Since then, every filmmaker in India has been trying to recreate this success.

Seasoned filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma dissected this trend of making movies to cater to "pan-India" audiences and why not everyone is as successful and consistent as Rajamouli in making big blockbusters. 

ALSO READ: Modern Masters: SS Rajamouli Trailer - Legendary director calls him the ‘slave of his story’ | Watch

"Rajamouli proved that when things go right, you can hit Rs 1000 crore or Rs 2000 crore. If the film is good, it can do that kind of business. So that's a huge safety net," RGV told Galatta Plus.

RGV explained that many are attempting to make large-scale movies without the same level of planning and faith that Rajamouli had, leading to higher costs and lesser returns. He emphasized that the issue lies in imagining their films to be on par with Rajamouli's without the same careful execution, resulting in inefficiencies and lower success rates.

"Even if you are spending Rs 500 crore, it's still 1/4th of what Rajamouli's films have collected. Human nature is to push the limits. Then, it's the question of your capacity, and what they call a 'leap of faith.' The leap of faith is technically what Rajamouli did. They (other filmmakers) are not doing that. They are basically imagining that their films are as good as that. Then, it's a trap. All the heroes going to that (pan-India productions) are unending in terms of the time they take. Because unlike Hollywood, in India, we don't plan properly. The costs go for a toss. Still, the budget only comes to half of what Baahubali collected, and it doesn't seem such a big risk," RGV explained.

Enjoy 35+ OTTs like ZEE5, LionsgatePlay, Ullu, SunNXT, SonyLIV, Fancode and 250+ Live TV channels at just ₹99