Brahmastra, like Baahubali and RRR, will be a landmark film: Nagarjuna Akkineni

Nagarjuna Akkineni was present in Chennai along with Ranbir Kapoor and SS Rajamouli to promote Brahmastra.

Nagarjuna Akkineni, SS Rajamouli and Ranbir Kapoor at PVR-Sathyam Cinemas/Twitter

It's noticeable that SS Rajamouli, who has become one of India's most sought-after filmmakers—thanks to hits like Baahubali and RRR—is presenting Brahmastra. The Eega director said, "Baahubali 2 consumed five years of my life. We have a person here (referring to Ayan Mukerji), who gave ten years of his life for a vision in which he believed. I recognised vision in his narration and wanted to back it up."

Brahmastra, billed as a trilogy, marks the start of The Astraverse India's first original movie universe. While Ranbir Kapoor plays the protagonist Shiva, who has a special connection to the fire, the film also features Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Alia Bhatt, Mouni Roy and Dimple Kapadia, besides Badshah of Hindi cinema SRK in a cameo.

Indian mythology has always fascinated Nagarjuna Akkineni, and Brahmastra will be his landmark film. "I loved Endhiran and 2.0 which swept the globe. Then came Baahubali that defied all odds and numbers. KGF: Chapter 2, RRR and Kamal Haasan's Vikram followed suit. We now have Brahmastra."

Rajamouli, who is presenting the film in South India, stated that making a film like Brahmastra was not an easy task. "It's not a fairy tale, but rather a commercial approach to telling a story. We had heard about these astras as children but never seen them in their full glory. Ayan fantasised about creating a world, unlike anything we'd ever seen before."

Further, Rajamouli said, "Love is the most powerful of all the astras, including Vanara Astra, Agni Astra, Jalastra and Brahmastra. He (Ayan) did not simply state this fact in dialogues; he made certain that his point was understood—That love will triumph over all."

On envisioning Brahmastra, Ayan, in an interview, said, as a kid, he was a huge fan of the fantasy-adventure genre. "I was among the youngest children I knew who had read The Lord of the Rings."

On the VFX journey of Brahmastra Ayan added, "We lacked the resources of James Cameron or Christopher Nolan. As a result, I worked a bit harder to visualise everything. I needed to provide the right kind of footage for the VFX artists to work with. There were changes to be made in the story. For example, we wanted to make a bear at one point, but our budget had run out. So we came up with something new."

Bankrolled by Star Studios, Dharma Productions, Prime Focus and Starlight Pictures, Brahmastra, will release theatrically on September 9 in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

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