SS Rajamouli is putting an ancient story inside a very modern canvas. Reports say a key stretch of his next film, Varanasi, draws on an episode from the Ramayana and runs roughly 30 minutes. That sequence is said to sit at the centre of a much larger “globe-trotting, time-trotting” spectacle, rather than a full adaptation of the epic.
Why one episode, not the whole epic
On The Empire Film Podcast, the director said Indian cinema, especially Telugu films, has produced several epic-rooted features. But he was not satisfied with their treatment.
“I was never satisfied with the scale and grandeur displayed in those films,” Rajamouli said.
That candour matters because it explains the creative bet. He is not trying to out-size a known story by simply adding more; he is concentrating one Ramayana episode inside a story that moves across time and geography.
Scale, grandeur and emotion
Rajamouli described scale, grandeur and emotion as the elements he wants to combine in Varanasi. The approach sets up a test of his own filmmaking limits, especially after Baahubali and RRR raised audience expectations for Indian spectacle.
For fans, that suggests the Ramayana sequence may not be a direct retelling. The incidents and characters could be reshaped by Rajamouli’s visual language and emotional reading.
What we know about Varanasi
- Director: SS Rajamouli
- Cast: Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Prithviraj Sukumaran
- Release: April 7, 2027, worldwide
- Status: shoot reportedly nearing completion
For Hindi cinema audiences, Varanasi matters because it sits in the pan-India event-film lane: a Telugu director, a star cast that crosses industries, and a mythological hook with global release ambitions. The shoot wrapping should now accelerate teaser, music and OTT updates. Rajamouli has also spoken about a multi-film Mahabharata series, so audiences may be watching the start of a longer epic slate.
Source: Filmfare