150 crore Baahubali series put on hold by Netflix: report

A ₹150 crore series based on the high-grossing fantasy epic "Baahubali" duology of movies by S.S Rajamouli has been shelved by producer Netflix and a large amount invested in the project has been written off as bad debt, a report by entertainment site Pinkvilla claimed.

The series was announced by 'Baahubali: The Beginning" director Rajamouli himself. Titled "Baahubali: Before the Beginning", the series was to have been a prequel that explored the rise to power of the film's iconic queen-regent Shivagami, played by Remya Krishnan in the movies and Mrunal Thakur in the series. Thakur was then replaced by Wamiqa Gabbi.

The Pinkvilla report cites sources in Netflix who told the portal that there was a move to revamp the series after extensive shooting had been done in Hyderabad under director Deva Katta. The replacement directors were reported to be Kunal Deshmukh and Ribhu Dasgupta who had begun the prep work for reshooting in July of 2021.

However, an ETimes report has claimed that the series was not checked but only paused temporarily as Netflix and the team struggled to bring the "best version" of the show tot he table for audiences.

"Those who have been associated with the project have all been on the same page about the fact that creating India's first epic series comes with its own set of challenges. The last two years, due to the on-going pandemic have been full of complexities and hurdles. They have impacted productions across the country and especially so to projects with the scales of Baahubali," the unnamed source told ETimes.

There is also a speculation the the company Bombay Fables which produced the Madhavan-starrer "Decoupled" for Netflix will not take over "Baahubali: Before the Beginning" as creative producers. Currently, the series is under Siddharth Tewary's "Swastik Productions" which has produced mythological and period dramas like "Porus", "Mahabharat" and "Mahakali: Anth Hi Aarambh Hai".

"Baahubali: Before The Beginning" was rumoured to comprise of nine episodes based on Anand Neelakantan's book 'The Rise of Sivagami', which narrated the story of Mahishmati's queen and how the city-state evolved into an empire.