S. S. Rajamouli

Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli (born 10 October 1973), professionally known as S. S. Rajamouli, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who primarily works in Telugu cinema. He is best known for directing fantasy action films, such as "Magadheera" (2009) featured at the American Fantastic Fest, "Eega" (2012) winning "Most Original Film" at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, ' (2015) nominated for American Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, ' (2017) winning the American Saturn Award for Best International Film, and the Australian Telstra People's Choice Award. The "Baahubali" franchise became the highest-grossing Indian film series of all time, with a gross of approximately . He is one of the most prolific directors of Indian cinema.
His other works include the action films "Sye" and "Vikramarkudu" featured at the 37th International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section. "Maryada Ramanna", "Vikramarkudu" and "Chatrapathi" were remade in various Indian languages, with successful reviews. Rajamouli has garnered various honours including three National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards South, five state Nandi Awards, the IIFA Award, two SIIMA Awards, the Star World India, "Entertainer of The Year" in 2012, and the "CNN-News18 Indian of the Year in Entertainment" for 2015. In 2016, he was honoured with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour for his contributions towards the field of Art.
Early life.
Rajamouli was born in 1973 in Amareshwara Camp near Manvi in Raichur district of present-day Karnataka state to screenwriter K. V. Vijayendra Prasad and Raja Nandini. His family hails from Kovvur in Andhra Pradesh. His primary education was done at Kovvur and his higher education was at Eluru. He lived in Vizag for several years as his mother was from there.
Rajamouli's cousin, M. M. Keeravani has worked music composer for all of his films. His other cousin Kalyan Koduri is also a music composer.
Career.
Early career.
Rajamouli started directing Telugu soap operas on ETV, under the guidance of K. Raghavendra Rao. Later on, he directed the TV series "Santhi Nivasam", produced by K. Raghavendra Rao. His first shot at Telugu films was "Student No.1", with "Jr. NTR" in 2001. It took two years for Rajamouli to come up with his second film "Simhadri". In the two-year gap between "Student No.1" and "Simhadri", Rajamouli planned his first mythological film with Malayalam actor Mohanlal, but the film eventually got shelved. In 2015, Assistant art director Manu Jagath, who later worked as the art director for Baahubali, released several sketches he had drawn for the shelved Mohanlal project. Rajamouli's third film was "Sye", with actors Nithin and Genelia D'Souza. It was a first-of-its-kind film in Tollywood, in that it was based on a rugby game. This film was also the first instance where Rajamouli collaborated with K. K. Senthil Kumar. His next was "Chatrapathi", with the music of M. M. Keeravani and cinematography by Senthil Kumar.
Breakthrough.
In his next stint "Vikramarkudu", Rajamouli worked with Ravi Teja. The film was a big success and was remade into Kannada as "Veera Madakari" (2009), Tamil as "Siruthai" (2011), and Hindi as "Rowdy Rathore" (2012). He then directed "Yamadonga", a socio-fantasy film praised by critics. Next was the fantasy-action film "Magadheera", starring Ram Charan and Kajal Aggarwal. Magadheera became one of the biggest commercial successes in Telugu Cinema and was the highest-grossing Telugu film at the end of its theatrical run. For Magadheera, Rajamouli won the Nandi Award for Best Director and Filmfare Award for Best Director – Telugu for the film. This film also won the National Film Award for Best Choreography, and launched the leads into stardom. His action comedy film "Maryada Ramanna" (2010) was remade in Hindi as "Son of Sardar" and into other languages like Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, and Malayalam. In 2012 Rajamouli stated in an interview with Maa TV that "Maryada Ramanna" was his personal favourite film among all the films he had directed.
Rajamouli's 2012 action-fantasy film "Eega" was screened to critical acclaim at L'Étrange Film Festival. The Tamil version "Naan Ee" was screened at the 10th Chennai International Film Festival. The Telugu version has also garnered awards for the "Most Original Film", "Best Special Effects", "Best Comedy", "Best Fights", "Best Film to Watch with a Crowd", "Best Editing", "Best Villain" and "Best Hero" at the 8th annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The Telugu version was also screened the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the Panorama section of the 16th Shanghai International Film Festival and Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. The film has received Best art direction award at the Fantaspoa film festival of Brazil. Also, it has been nominated for six awards including Best film, Best Cinematographer, Best Special effects, Best Music Composer, Best Editor and Best supporting Actor for the "Madrid International Film Festival".
"Baahubali" and upcoming projects.
In 2015, he directed the epic action film "", which became the second highest grossing Indian film of all time, and the highest grossing Indian film of all time within India. The making of the epic film was featured in BBC's documentary on 100 Years of Indian cinema, directed by Sanjeev Bhaskar. The film was shot using Arri Alexa XT camera, marking Rajamouli's first film using digital camera. Rajamouli's work was cited by "The Hollywood Reporter", "The Guardian" and "The Huffington Post". The film was Nominated in four categories at the 42nd Saturn Awards of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in Los Angeles, USA.
"Baahubali: The Beginning" was screened at the "Open Cinema Strand" of Busan International Film Festival, "Indian Film Festival The Hague", Sitges Film Festival in Spain, Utopiales Film Festival in France, Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, in Paris, Five Flavours Film Festival in Poland, Hawaii International Film Festival in Honolulu, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in Brussels, Belgium, and the Cannes Film Festival. The part II - "" was premiered at the British Film Institute, and was the inaugural feature film at the 39th Moscow International Film Festival.
Rajamouli's upcoming film "RRR" (2021) is a period drama based on the lives of Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. Made on a budget of 400 crore, it is one of the most expensive Indian films. The film features NTR Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, and Ajay Devgn. Rajamouli is also committed to collaborate with actor Mahesh Babu. Its production is expected to begin in 2022. Rajamouli also spoke about his intention to make a film based on the Hindu epic "Mahabharata" in the future.
Personal life.
Rajamouli married Rama in 2001. Rama has worked as a costume designer for many of Rajamouli's films. He has adopted Karthikeya, Rama's son from her previous marriage. The couple also has an adopted daughter. Karthikeya is married to Pooja Prasad, niece of Telugu actor Jagapathi Babu.
In April 2017, Rajamouli said that he is an atheist. He considers Bhakti, in terms of subservience to a higher power, as a strong emotion, and he uses it as a storytelling element in his films. In May 2017, Rajamouli visited Mantralayam along with his family and prayed to village deity Manchalamma and Raghavendra Swamy for their blessings. Speaking on the occasion, Rajamouli said that he was so elated that his films are well received by the audience and wished that the blessings of Sri Raghavendra Swamy be always showered upon him.