Rajamouli’s Growing Fascination For Anime Storytelling

India’s most celebrated filmmaker SS Rajamouli, who explored multiple genres throughout his career, seems to have become a fanboy of animation movies of late after watching some of the recent blockbusters like Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan and Arcane. 

While promoting his upcoming film Varanasi with Hollywood media, Rajamouli made an interesting revelation that his previous film RRR, which created a global phenomenon  after its release in 2022, is likely to return as an animation film. 

Rajamouli stated that his team is in talks with a few studios in Japan to bring RRR as an anime some time in the future. He expressed confidence in making this idea into a reality and also continue it as a series. The Baahubali director said he was blown away with the genre after getting introduced very recently. 

RRR narrates the fictional story of two fearless Indian revolutionary leaders of the pre-independence era played by NTR and Ram Charan. The film emerged as a global hit and drew the attention of audiences beyond India. 

Speaking to a leading Hollywood portal, Rajamouli said that watching Anime movies opened up new avenues for him as he understood how to narrate stories in a more attacking and impressive manner. 

It is already a known fact Rajamouli’s epic mythology Baahubali, which turned out to be the highest grossing Indian film, is getting a two part spin off through a CG-animated feature film. The first part titled Baahubali: The Eternal Ear, directed by Ishan Shukla, is due for release in 2027. 

Now, the collaboration between Rajamouli and Japanese studios for RRR anime suggests that there is a larger global ambition for the project. There won’t be any surprises if Rajamouli himself takes up direction to bring an anime for moviegoers in future. 

For now, he is busy working on mythology subjects. Varanasi, which is slated for release on April 7th 2027, is loosely based on ancient Hindu epic The Ramayana.