Matter of immense pride for Indian cinema
While the Indian film industry is second to none in artistic quality and sheer quantity of its productions, it has unfortunately lagged behind world cinema in technical prowess. It may be too early to say if the Telugu blockbuster Bahubali —The Beginning, released this past Friday, will eventually lead to an industry-wide improvement, but there is no denying that, going by expert opinion, the film has single-handedly raised the bar. Released simultaneously in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, the film, having raked in an estimated `60 to `70 crore on just the first day of its release, has already become the biggest opener of this year in any Indian language.
It has also become the top south Indian opener of all time as well, and has broken box office records for Indian films overseas, including in the US. Made on a budget of `250 crore (which includes the second part of the franchise, Bahubali — The Conclusion, that will be released the following year), Bahubali is reportedly the most expensive films to have ever been made in this country. Much of the funds have been spent on computer-generated imagery and special effects, which were crucial to creating the film's larger-than-life canvas.
The film also pioneered the use of the Academy Colour Encoding System — a colour image encoding system proposed by the los Angeles-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — which was used in India for the time. And the difference shows in the quality of Babubali's graphics. As many film critics have glowingly observed, these are at the same level as some of the best of Hollywood films. However, compared to the money spent on the biggest Hollywood productions, Bahubali's budget is really small change. And this in turn has led some film-makers and critics in Hollywood to wonder why they aren't able get more bang for their buck, as their Indian counterparts.
That said, this is hardly the first time that an Indian film has spent a lot of money (by Indian standards) on state-of-the-art technology and sought to create a dazzling product that sweeps their audience of its feet and takes them to altogether different world. In recent times, the Hindi film Ra.One and the Tamil film Kochadaiiyaan tried to do something similar but they failed to impress as much because of a glaring disconnect between the art and science of film-making. Simply put, they had the tools but couldn't use them effectively — as a result of which the technical tricks and computer-generated imagery seemed forced, and even embarrassing. This is where critics say Bahubali scores. Director SS Rajamouli, who has delivered impressive work with films such as Magadheera, Maryada Ramanna and Eega (which was also loaded with cutting-edge special effects), doesn't let the graphics become the story. Instead, he works them such that they add to the story and enhance the cinematic experience — much like James Cameron did in Avatar or Peter Jackson managed in lord of the Rings.