What's behind global rise of Rajamouli? - Page 4

I think, Bahubali 2 is the most successful Indian movie (in India and worldwide).

I do agree on crassness. There were scenes with Tammanah in BB 1 which were crass and sexist.

He does objectify women.

And he does bring in caste angle also. Like Devsena keeps bragging about kshatriya and judges Bahubali's strength seeing his hands and wonders if he is kshatriya.

He has been criticised for his portrayal of women and references to varna system etc.

Originally posted by: atominis

I do agree on crassness. There were scenes with Tammanah in BB 1 which were crass and sexist.

He does objectify women.

And he does bring in caste angle also. Like Devsena keeps bragging about kshatriya and judges Bahubali's strength seeing his hands and wonders if he is kshatriya.

He has been criticised for his portrayal of women and references to varna system etc.

The era he placed the movie, that is how Kshatriyas used to be. Proud, headstrong and some of them even vain. How is that a statement on the caste system as we understand it today? If he were to show in any other way, it would have been called out for not getting the tonality of the era right.

And this is the first I am hearing about this criticism anyway.

Twitter and some news portals ripped apart Bahubali for portrayal of women and characters harping on varna.

It is not first time such criticism happened.

I know about the era. And I am aware this is how kshatriyas used to behave back then. But audience of today, wants sanitised versions I guess. Rajamouli's old FB post on varna system also went viral and earned him lot of flak by anti caste writers and Ambedkarites back then.

And Prabhas trying to make Tamannah feminine, tearing her clothes, letting her hair loose etc was seen as harassment and forcing a woman to look a certain way (like he puts red thing on her lips to make it look like she put lipstick). That scene was widely criticised and compared to almost rape or forcing consent.

Originally posted by: atominis

Twitter and some news portals ripped apart Bahubali for portrayal of women and characters harping on varna.

It is not first time such criticism happened.

I know about the era. And I am aware this is how kshatriyas used to behave back then. But audience of today, wants sanitised versions I guess. Rajamouli's old FB post on varna system also went viral and earned him lot of flak by anti caste writers and Ambedkarites back then.

And Prabhas trying to make Tamannah feminine, tearing her clothes, letting her hair loose etc was seen as harassment and forcing a woman to look a certain way (like he puts red thing on her lips to make it look like she put lipstick). That scene was widely criticised and compared to almost rape or forcing consent.

I am talking about the tonality of the era and the criticism you said that ensued. I am aware of the sexist overtones being heavily criticized, heck even I was one of them who didn’t liked it at all. I cringe every time their track starts and skip that entire piece.

Don’t know about his personal tweets about the varna system but his characters in BB were all justified, be it the Kshatriyas or the so called ‘lower caste ‘people and ‘servants/ slaves’. I definitely am not aware of people being so obtuse to the point of preferring to see the lies rather than the reality.

Originally posted by: BettyA1

But they say RRR is liked worldwide

It's popular in America not just among Indian-Americans but other hyphenated Americans and Non-Hyphenated Americans as well

It was among the Top 10 films in 57 countries including US, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa, Australia and UAE.

It's the highest grossing Indian movie in Japan

For two consecutive weeks, the film was watched for more than 25.5 million hours on Netflix

It is relative, it has broken through much more mainstream than any Indian movie before which is a big step

Even the number of big mainstream names from Spielberg to Cameron, Edgar wright, the daniels (who won the Oscar for EEAAO) to hideo Kojima praising an Indian movie is unprecedented. I think lot of people who are into movies watching have watched it but it is not comparable to some hw movie
A lot more Americans watched it I guess on Netflix, and with the awards buzz but it will still be a small percentage of the total population.

The reality is that even european, Korean movies are still watched by only lesser percentage of Americans.

Which is why HW is so big, movies like marvel, avatar have broken into even small town india

Originally posted by: 1t1svat1t1s

I am talking about the tonality of the era and the criticism you said that ensued. I am aware of the sexist overtones being heavily criticized, heck even I was one of them who didn’t liked it at all. I cringe every time their track starts and skip that entire piece.

Don’t know about his personal tweets about the varna system but his characters in BB were all justified, be it the Kshatriyas or the so called ‘lower caste ‘people and ‘servants/ slaves’. I definitely am not aware of people being so obtuse to the point of preferring to see the lies rather than the reality.

Agree totally ruins the movie

The crassness or portrayal of women was totally avoidable but I think santizing everything will make it totally colorless and will be an empty depiction.

Imo devasena and the arm scene was to reinforce that he is baahubali and Kshatriyas are warriors.

I think the reason he is actually successful in the west is this, he is quite unabashed in showing some things, like friendship and brotherhood, old fashioned chivalry, bravery which movies like Ben hur etc portrayed. Audience has got tired of this political correctness being forced fed into everything even when not fitting in

My favorite Rajmouli movie till date is Magadheera, I was a teenager when I watched it and till date I absolutely love that movie, that made me a fan of Charan too. I think from the making of that movie itself one can say how SSR always had the vision and hunger to make it bigger, his movies mostly revolved around the emotional aspect of love, be it between Bhairav-Mitravindha, be it between Armendra-DevSena or be it between Ram-Bheem, he elevates the unbelievable and illogical aspect of these fairy talish stories into sth so relatable and unpredictable, like we have watched such themes in other movies too but in his movies sth is just different, also the fact that he has excellent marketing skills and doesn’t talk bull shit in media helps.

Bahubali was a pop culture reset, both in India and outside it, Prabhas was a huge star and he just became bigger with it, so did Charan and NTR, SSR movies are like a once in lifetime opportunity for the heroes, and I’m excited for his next with Mahesh Babu. It’s insane how a director whose appearance isn’t known to much of the audience can make the Telugu language so much big that it brought home the Oscars, he’s a genius and deserves respect.

And about women objectification and other drawbacks, then it happens in every Indian movie and maybe the least in SSR movies, his movies also gave strong iconic characters like Rajmata also a female character, DevSena the female lead. So there’s nothing wrong with Bahubali as long as you understand the zest of the plot.

Having said tha I wonder when will my favorite Allu Arjun work with SSR, the wait is just too much 😢

See, Indians nowadays, especially anti caste ones and Ambedkarites have their own critique of caste and varna system and sexism.

Earlier shows like BRC Mahabharat tried to add some dialogues against jaat paat gotr through Karna, Ekalavya and Duryodhan.

To sort of tone down the kshatriya bragadoccio by Pandavas, Draupadi.

Most new age viewers hate glorifying past or showing varna hierarchy as normal. That is why they dislike Bahubali.

Many modern viewers also hate Bhansali films for glorifying regressive stuff through Bajirao and Padmavat. Bhansali was ripped apart for glorifying polygamy in Bajirao and Devdas (2 women dancing in love for same man) and dragged over coals for glorifying Sati and Jauhar as love or sacrifice or honour in Padmavat.

Though it is true that in past, polygamy and jauhar, sati were common. And if a film is set in that era they will have to show these things, varna system or even communal conflicts openly.

Like Indians used to call Islamic invaders as malechha. But showing it in films now will be labeled Islamophobia.

Indians also had practice of female infanticide in medieval era particularly. Showing it now and showing insane lengths to which desis used to go to get a male heir will earn flak from modern audience.

This is the issue with history and period films. They have to walk on eggshells or else get thrashed for writing or depicting particular thing.

They do same with films based on 1947 or 1984 or 2002. And either side gets upset.

I am okay with Bahubali 2 but I deffo hated what Prabhas did to make Tamannah 'more feminine' in BB1.

That looked like 'taming'. Stripping her, tearing clothes to make her look sexier, opening her hair etc was bakwas and also sending wrong message to youth.

Also lines on whether Tamannah was hiding her real self, tum ho kaun and making her warrior self look like some compulsion was regressive.

I do not think in that era or any era otherwise, a man needs to show a woman how to be a woman or fit in his notions of what a woman ought to look, behave or dress like.

That forced makeover given to Tamannah by Prabhas in BB1 is clearly worthy of criticism and I am glad BB2 avoided this nonsense.

Though BB2 also had lines on male heir. Maa ki narazgi sirf tab tak hai jab tak hum unhe pota nahi de dete.

Or 'tumhari kokh mein aane wala waaris hai dhyaan rahe'. As if they already knew it would be a male baby only.

I know in that era, whenever a woman got pregnant people assumed it would be a son only. And wanted a male heir only.

But these lines in even today's films tend to piss off audience in urban areas.

So they try to critique the popularity and glorification of such films in modern era.

Most period films get bashing now. Be it Bhansali films or Rajamouli, all thanks to religion, caste and gender angle or race angle. Like Padmavat was bashed by both Hindus and Muslims with everyone calling it Islamophobic or showing Hindus weak or glorifying Jauhar, Sati or whatnot.

I guess popularity of such films and big stars in such films and big banners, big makers promoting such films sends off alarm bells in modern minded people who fear hard won reforms being undone and new generation seeing past regressive practices as normal or ideal.

Though I agree showing brave, chivalrous men and women, loyal warriors, does make audience feel good.

I mean I am also fed up of seeing confused manchild types portrayed by Ranbir Kapoor in films or heroines whining after break up and their biggest achievement being how to learn to smile and start afresh after break up. So yeah it does look good to see Bahubali or Magadheera or some warrior, outspoken woman like Devsena or Shivagami and I enjoyed films like Arundhati, character of Jejamma in it or Rudramadevi.

I can see why these films work.