Hyderabad: For Tollywood star Prabhas, taking on the lead role in the multi-lingual, two-part epic Baahubali, was all an act of faith. And here’s why. When director S.S. Rajamouli first offered him the role, he narrated the film’s story in just four lines. “Then, almost 3-4 years later, he told me about the main characters,” Prabhas recounts.
 
“It sounded like a big project, but we hadn’t imagined it would be this huge! The action sequences alone, shot with me, took more than 220 days to film. “And before shooting the sequences I had to train in rock climbing, horse riding and kick boxing for six months. A few experts from Vietnam were flown down to Hyderabad to train us. Even during the shoot I had to practise martial arts and sword fighting for 5-6 hours a day,” says the actor.
 
Now, with Karan Johar coming on board, yet another dimension has been added to the scale of the project. And Prabhas says that he was shocked when he heard about it, “When Rana told me that Karan Johar is producing Baahubali, I was shocked. I informed my friends and family and they said ‘No way, why would Karan produce a South film?’ He is the biggest name in entertainment in the country. Our film has a grand scale and great visuals, but without Karan we wouldn’t have made such an impact in Bollywood,” he says.
 
Prabhas has nothing but words of praise for his co-stars in Baahubali, Tamannaah and Rana Daggubati. “Tamannaah is the most hardworking girl I have ever worked with. We shot a scene in Mahabaleshwar in the rain that had 30-40 retakes due to some technical problem.
 
She gave every shot with the same intensity. I told her, ‘You are shooting so many hours, all wet, with the same intensity. Even I cannot do that. After five-six takes, I get tired’,” Prabhas shares. As for Rana, he’s more than just a co-star. “By the third schedule, Rana and I became best friends. We are close enough to discuss what is happening in our families and personal lives with each other. I can tell you that for all of us, the most entertaining aspect of working on Baahubali was Rana!”
 
So what comes next for Prabhas? Is a Bollywood film on the anvil perhaps? “Who wouldn’t do a Bollywood film?” he says. “My favourite actors are Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. I love Dabangg and all of SRK’s movies,” Prabhas adds.