SS Rajamouli: 25 Years, 12 Films, One Oscar

From a Rs 12 crore debut to a reported Rs 1400 crore Mahesh Babu project, the director's twelve-film run hits its quarter-century mark.

Twenty-five years ago today, a young director named SS Rajamouli released his first film, Student No. 1, with Jr NTR in the lead role. Made on a budget of Rs 1.80 crore, it collected around Rs 12 crore at the box office, according to a tally published by Telugu Filmibeat to mark the anniversary.

That number reads almost quaint now. Rajamouli's most recent theatrical release, RRR, carried a budget upwards of Rs 550 crore and pulled in more than Rs 1300 crore worldwide, per the same report. In between sit twelve films that trace a specific arc, college drama to mass action to mythological fantasy to two-part historical epic, ending with the film that put Indian cinema on the Oscar stage.

The early run belonged largely to Jr NTR, who anchored Student No. 1, Simhadri (2003) and Yamadonga (2007), what the report calls Rajamouli's hat-trick with the actor. Simhadri, made for Rs 8 crore, brought in Rs 26 crore and reportedly rewrote the records that existed at the time. Sye, the 2004 college drama with Nithin and Genelia, stands by Filmibeat's numbers as the least profitable film of his career, recovering just Rs 13 crore against an Rs 8 crore budget.

Chatrapathi in 2005 turned Prabhas into what the report calls an unstoppable mass hero. Vikramarkudu, made with Ravi Teja in 2006 after Pawan Kalyan was reportedly unable to take up the role, nearly doubled its Rs 11 crore budget in collections. Then came Magadheera in 2009. Budgeted at Rs 35 crore, the Ram Charan film crossed Rs 150 crore and became, per the report, the first Telugu film to cross the Rs 100 crore mark, a milestone that made Rajamouli the industry's top-billed director overnight.

Eega, the 2012 film that made a housefly its hero opposite Samantha, Nani and Sudeep, and Maryada Ramanna with Sunil in 2010, kept the momentum going before Baahubali arrived. The Beginning, made for Rs 180 crore, collected over Rs 600 crore in 2015. The Conclusion, on a budget above Rs 250 crore, brought in more than Rs 1800 crore in 2017 and became the first Indian film to cross the Rs 1000 crore mark, according to the report. RRR followed in 2022, introducing Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt to Telugu cinema before eventually winning the Oscar for Naatu Naatu.

Twelve films, one debut a quarter-century back, and now a thirteenth already in motion. Varanasi, with Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran as the antagonist, is being mounted on a reported budget of around Rs 1400 crore. Trade sources cited by Filmibeat expect it to land anywhere between Rs 3000 crore and Rs 5000 crore. It's scheduled for a worldwide release on April 7, 2027.

Whether that number holds is a separate conversation. For now, the industry is waiting to see what a time-travel adventure set against mythology looks like from a director who's rewritten his own records more than once.