Baahubali: The Beginning

Baahubali: The Beginning (stylized as bãhubali; English: The One with Strong Arms) is a 2015
Indian epic historical fiction film directed by S. S. Rajamouli. The film was produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devineni and was simultaneously shot in Telugu and Tamil. The film stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty and Tamannaah in the lead roles, with Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj, and Nassar in supporting roles. The first of two cinematic parts, The Beginning is a tale of the lost rightful heir of the fictional kingdom of Mahishmati, who learns about his true identity while falling in love with a rebellious warrior, who (among with her group) intends to rescue the former queen of Mahismati.

The film was conceived by Rajamouli's father K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, who randomly told him a story about Sivagami, a woman who carries a baby in her hand while crossing a river, and a few years later about Kattapa, which intrigued Rajamouli. His fascination with mythology and the tales of Amar Chitra Katha comics further fueled his interest in the story. However, it took the writers three months to finalise the final draft. The soundtrack and background score were composed by M. M. Keeravani while the cinematography, production design, and VFX were handled by K. K. Senthil Kumar, Sabu Cyril and V. Srinivas Mohan respectively.

The film was made on a budget of ₹1.8 billion, making it the most expensive Indian film at its time of release. The film opened worldwide on 10 July 2015, garnering critical acclaim and record breaking box office success. With the worldwide box office gross of ₹6.5 billion, it became the highest grossing film in India and the third-highest grossing Indian film worldwide, and the highest-grossing South Indian film at the time of its release. Its Hindi dubbed version also broke several records by becoming the highest grossing dubbed film in India. Both budget and box office records since has been surpassed by its sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. The Beginning is the highest grossing Indian film of 2015 and the fourth highest grossing Indian film of all time.

It received several accolades. It won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects and Best Feature Film, becoming the first Telugu film to win the award. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards South, the Telugu version won five awards from ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Rajamouli and Best Supporting Actress for Krishnan. The Beginning became the first Indian film to be nominated for Saturn Awards, receiving five nominations at the 42nd ceremony, including Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actress for Tamannaah. The film's second and final cinematic part was released on 28 April 2017.

Plot

In the ancient kingdom of Mahismati, an injured woman (Ramya Krishnan) emerges from a cave while carrying a baby. She kills 2 soldiers pursuing her and attempts to wade towards a village across a raging river, but fails and falls in. She clutches a branch, before pleading to God Parameshwara that "Mahendra Baahubali must live!" and holds the baby in one hand above her head before dying.

Local villagers notice the baby and rescue it. Sanga (Rohini) and her husband name the infant Sivudu and raise him as their own son. The villagers seal the staircase leading up the waterfall, fearing that someone may come to take away the child.

Sivudu (Prabhas) grows up to be a strong, adventurous young man who tries to climb the waterfall, with minimal success. After carrying a stone Shiva lingam to the waterfalls, he finds a wooden mask which has fallen. Driven to find the owner of the mask, he attempts to climb the waterfall again and succeeds. After his ascent, Sivudu discovers that the mask belongs to Avantika (Tamannaah), a rebellious warrior of a group engaged in guerrilla warfare against Emperor Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati) of Mahismati. The group, led by Devasena's brother (Balireddy Pruthviraj), intends to rescue their former queen Devasena (Anushka Shetty) who has been imprisoned in the kingdom for the past 25 years. Avantika is given the opportunity to rescue the queen.

Avantika falls in love with Sivudu after finding out that he climbed the waterfall for her. Sivudu pledges to help her in her mission and sneaks into Mahishmati to rescue Devasena. Sivudu rescues Devasena and flees with her, but is chased down by Bhallaladeva's son, Bhadra (Adivi Sesh) and the king's royal slave warrior Kattappa (Sathyaraj). After Sivudu beheads Bhadra, Kattappa drops his weapon, realizing that Sivudu is Mahendra Baahubali, the son of late king Amarendra Baahubali. Kattappa narrates the story of Amarendra's past.

Amarendra's mother died while giving birth to him, while his father had died long before that. His uncle Bijjaladeva was deemed unfit to rule due to his crooked nature, however he believes he was denied the throne due to his disability. Bijjaladeva's wife Sivagami assumed control of the kingdom with Kattappa's assistance until a new king was selected. Amarendra Baahubali and Bhallaladeva were brought up together, trained in areas including arts, science, disguise, politics, and warfare, but both of them have different approaches towards kingship. Amarendra Baahubali is gracious to everyone, and is loved by the people. Bhallaladeva is violent and achieves his goals by any means possible.

It is revealed that Mahismathi is about to be attacked by an army of savages called Kalakeyas. Bijjaladeva (Nassar), Bhallaladeva's father proposes that the prince who kills Inkoshi, the king of Kalakeyas, will be the future king of Mahishmati and the chief minister agrees with him. Sivagami nevertheless, says that it is princes' duty to protect and defend their country and orders that Mahishmati's war resources be distributed fairly among her two sons. Bijjaladeva uses his guile to make sure Bhallaladeva gets the maximum war resources.

The Kalakeyas are given an opportunity to change their minds. The Kalakeya king Inkoshi rejects their offer and insults Queen Sivagami by saying he will have children with her. An enraged Sivagami says she wants Inkoshi brought to her alive, but with his limbs chopped off, so that she can feed him to the vultures. During the battle, the Kalakeyas use a dirty tactic of using the prisoners of Mahishmati as shields. Bhallaladeva plowed through the line of innocent prisoners with his chariot which had blades turning and kills them. Amarendra, on the other hand, caused them to fall down and attacked the Kalakeyas behind them, thus saving the prisoners. When it seems that Mahishmati would end up being defeated, Amarendra inspires his soldiers to fight back and they end up crushing the enemy. While Amarendra defeated Inkoshi and was about to obey the words of Sivagami by chopping off his limbs, Bhallaladeva swings his weapon from a distance and kills him. Despite Bhallaladeva being the one to kill Inkoshi, Sivagami announces Amarendra Baahubali as the new emperor because of his courage and leadership exhibited in the war and also because of the fact that he shielded and protected his own countrymen throughout the war.

After the flashback, when asked about Amarendra's current whereabouts, a tearful Kattappa reveals that Amarendra is dead, and that he is the one who killed him.