S.S. Rajamouli, the Indian filmmaker behind RRR and Baahubali, knows how to tell an epic story. A big part of that is creating larger-than-life heroes, often by drawing from India’s history, mythology, and lore; but an equally important factor is the villain, an evil and ruthless antagonist for those heroes to struggle against and ultimately defeat. Rajamouli’s next film, Varanasi has a hero in Telugu cinema superstar Mahesh Babu, and a villain in Salaar‘s Prithviraj Sukumaran.
Speaking to a crowd of tens of thousands at a special announcement event held in Hyderabad, India that Polygon attended, he described his experience first learning about the mysterious new character, Kumbha.
“I got a message from Rajamouli,” the actor recalled. “He said, ‘The character of the antagonist in my next film has come out exceedingly well and is one of my finest characters. Would you be interested in doing it? A few days later, I was in his office.”
Prithviraj continued: “Five minutes into the narration, I was blown away. I listened to it like a little boy who’s got his hands on the next edition of his favorite comic book. How does someone think like this? Where do you find the inspiration to picturize something like this?”
He also described his character as “one of the most complex, the most emotionally and physically challenging characters that he [Rajamouli] has ever thought of.”
Details about the plot of Varanasi remain scarce (though a bit of research into the title may reveal some clues to those OK with spoilers). We know even less about Prithviraj’s villain Kumbha, who doesn’t appear in the new teaser trailer. A character poster revealed a week before the event shows Kumbha sitting in a futuristic wheelchair with Doc Ock robot arms, suggesting he’ll play a Lex Luthor-style antagonist who uses brain over brawn, but that’s all we know so far. That, and apparently he’s quite frightening, at least according to Priyanka Chopra, who plays the film’s female lead, Mandakini.
“Prithviraj, you’re very scary in the movie; terrifying,” Chopra said at the announcement event, before adding, “But in real life you’re the complete opposite.”
Anticipation is already high for Varanasi, which won’t arrive until 2027, roughly five years after the director’s last film, RRR.
Prithviraj, who is better known in India for his starring roles in Malayalam cinema (aka, Mollywood), described his first team-up with Telugu cinema (Tollywood) icon Rajamouli and the resulting movie as a major moment for the entire country.
“It is a piece of cinema that we all truly believe will become our collective pride,” he said, praising the director for “taking Indian cinema to the world, this time bigger, hopefully better, and more audacious than before.”
