6 Years of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion EXCLUSIVE: I was confident of the film being in the top 2 hits of all time, says Anil Thadani of AA Films

As Baahubali: The Conclusion completes 6 years, distributor Anil Thadani of AA Films looks back at the film's phenomenal success.

By Keyur Seta -

April 28, 2023 - 10:00 AM IST

The phrase ‘pan-India film’ has been trending since last few years. It is used for films, preferably from the masala action genre, that get released in their original language along with their dubbed versions in few other languages. As such films are released all over India and they do well in all parts of the country, they are called a pan-India films.

6 Years of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion EXCLUSIVE: I was confident of the film being in the top 2 hits of all time, says Anil Thadani of AA Films

SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali - The Beginning (2015) did very well even in its Hindi version by earning Rs. 118 crores. But the phrase became more famous with the humongous success of the second film in the series, Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017).

Starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubati, Ramya Krishnan, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sathyaraj and Nasser, the film’s Hindi version went onto earn a phenomenal number of over Rs. 510 crores. Interestingly, no original Hindi language film had even touched Rs 400 crores back then.

AA Films, the company that distributed the Hindi version of Baahubali: The Conclusion, struck gold with the film’s triumph. The founder of the company Anil Thadani looked back at the film as it completes 6 years in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama.

Thadani said that the first film Baahubali: The Beginning doing well was the basic reason why its part 2 did well. “Obviously, it laid the foundation,” he said. “It was the continuation of the story. People had loved the first one. So, they, obviously, wanted to see the second one to complete the entire story. They had already seen the scale in the first part. Rajamouli sir is the number one director in the country. He has even reached the Oscars now. His vision and what he thinks and does is just amazing.”

The stakes were high for Baahubali 2. There were high expectations from the film’s content as an indirect promise was made by the makers in the first part. When asked what was going on in his and Rajamouli’s mind just before the release in such a situation, Thadani said, “I don’t know what was going in his mind, but I was very confident that it would come in the top 2 of all-time hits of north India. The expectations were high, and they were met,” he said.

In the months leading up to the film’s release, social media was abuzz with the trend #WhyKattappaKilledBaahubali as there was a great amount of curiosity to know why Amarendra Baahubali was killed by one of his own. The trend became crazier just before the release. However, Thadani doesn’t believe that the trend was a big reason for the film’s success.

“It was all because of the film and the director’s vision,” he said. “If part one hadn’t done so well, part two wouldn’t have. It was obviously the product. Complete credit to the director’s vision and, of course, the producers to support his vision on that scale.”

It was also Rajamouli’s name that got Thadani eager to distribute both Baahubali movies without getting to hear the narration of the film. “When I got associated to part 1, it was only because of him. I came in towards the end. Why will he give me a narration? He obliged me by showing the confidence in me to release the film for him,” he said.

Thadani agrees that Karan Johar’s passionate involvement with the Hindi version of Baahubali: The Conclusion also helped the film in a way. “Karan Johar is a big brand. People know him. They know that if his name is attached, there will be quality,” he said.

AA Films have had a lot of successes in recent times in the form of the Hindi versions of Pushpa: The Rise, KGF: Chapter 2 and Kantara. Thadani said that he was confident of Pushpa working big time in the Hindi market but the success of Kantara was unprecedented. “For Kantara, because it was a different kind of a film, we released it (the Hindi version) two weeks after the original version released in the home turf. The success in the home ground gave us the confidence to go ahead and do it in Hindi,” he said.

Thadani was also surprised to see Kantara scoring more than KGF 2 in Kannada language. “The subject (of Kantara) was more localized. In the original language, for it to cross even the business of KGF: Chapter 2 in terms of the footfalls and the numbers is outstanding for a film like this. And KGF: Chapter 2 is a sequel. Today it’s (Kantara) the biggest hit even in the north in the original language, which speaks volumes of the product. It just came out of the blue. One can understand that it would work. But to this extent I don’t think I had anticipated,” said Thadani.

Also Read: Baahubali producer Shobu Yarlagadda congratulates team Pathaan as Shah Rukh Khan starrer surpasses Baahubali: The Conclusion, says, “Records are meant to be broken”