SS Rajamouli took 60 days to shoot a 25-minute Ramayana sequence in Varanasi: ‘Had goosebumps seeing Mahesh Babu as Rama’ | Bollywood News
3 min readChennaiFeb 9, 2026 10:51 AM IST
As fans await the next magnum opus, Varanasi, from RRR director SS Rajamouli, the filmmaker has recently shared insights into the meticulous planning and rigorous effort going into making the film. In a recent interaction, Rajamouli spoke about taking 60 days to shoot a single 25-minute sequence in the film. The sequence depicts an episode inspired by the Hindu epic Ramayana.
Varanasi inspired by Mahabharata and Ramayana
Speaking to The Wrap, he said, “Most of my films are inspirations from the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Indian epics. In this film, I had a chance to literally shoot one episode from Ramayana.”
Rajamouli shared details of the sequence and explained how it weaves together multiple moments from the Ramayana into a 25-minute epic battle scene. “That episode of the film is a combination of multiple sub-sub-episodes. So this entire thing put together is about 25 minutes in the film, one time in the film. Shooting that set of episodes, each one was like making a film on its own. The emotions that we had to go through that, the audience, the characters had to go through that sequence are different from each episode,” he said.
The filmmaker described shooting the 25-minute sequence as making a film in itself, considering the level of difficulty involved. “Some episodes, the creative challenges were different. The technical challenges were different. So for everything, it was like approaching a completely new film, each sub episode. That was really, really challenging,” he said.
Rajamouli admitted that he and his team had to go all in to shoot the sequence, which took nearly 60 days to complete. “We had to put all our brains together, all our efforts together, to shoot that sequence. We shot it for 60 days, and one of the most satisfying sequences for them,” he said.
The director declared that “it will be one of the most memorable sequences of my films.” Rajamouli also described the moment he first saw his lead actor Mahesh Babu dressed as Ram for the sequence and how it overwhelmed him. “I felt like I was walking on air. On the first day, when I saw Mahesh dressed as Rama and doing a photoshoot, I had goosebumps,” he admitted.
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Earlier, Mahesh Babu, whose character is named Rudra in Varanasi, spoke about playing the role of Lord Rama in the film and said, “I’m playing Lord Rama’s character. It required posture. You can’t stand like modern characters,” he said.
Apart from Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra plays the role of a mysterious thief named Mandakini in the film, while Prithviraj Sukumaran essays the chief antagonist, Kumbha. The film is slated to release in cinemas next year on April 7.
