Rajamouli Might Have His Own IMAX Plans for Varanasi

A day after sending moviegoers into frenzy by silently erecting massive hoardings in the holy city of Varanasi just with a date on it, the makers of SS Rajamouli’s globe-trotting action adventure ‘Varanasi’ have now made it official that it will hit the screens on April 7, 2027. 

Rajamouli and other team members including the leading cast have shared an exciting poster to officially reveal the release date. It features a blazing asteroid like foreign object striking the earth, creating an apocalyptic explosion. The poster reiterates that the film will have a global release on April 7, 2027.  

While the domestic collections are expected to get a big boost from the Ugadhi festival holiday and long Summer season, trade circles are doubtful about the overseas openings due to mid-week release and also because of fact that there won’t be any offers in North America for Tuesday premieres. 

As announced by Rajamouli during the teaser launch event held in November last year, Varanasi is being filmed with a new technology in premium large scale format to give a better theatrical experience to viewers when it releases in IMAX screens. So, the team should accomodate as many IMAX screens as possible in overseas.

Trade reports hint that a few Hollywood biggies could pose a challenge for Varanasi in overseas markets. Highly awaited films like Godzilla x Kong: Supernova, along with other tentpole releases from Disney and Universal, are eyeing the last week of March and mid-April slots. With several big titles lining up, IMAX screens overseas are expected to be heavily crowded, which could limit Varanasi’s screen count initially. This is being seen as a possible concern for the film’s overseas box-office run.

As Rajamouli is very particular about releasing Varanasi in IMAX format, he might have got different plans to make sure that film gets proper wide release across all markets. This seems to be one of the reasons why they announced the release date almost 15 months in advance. Nevertheless, the film is expected to take a thunderous opening worldwide but the range of the box office collections will depend on other factors as well. 

This is the first time in Rajamouli’s career that he locked the release date much earlier than before. Mahesh Babu will be seen playing the role of Rudhra, while Priyanka is set to charm as Mandakini, and Prithviraj will appear the character named Kumbha, who is the main antagonist.