Baahubali re-release: Tamannaah Bhatia’s song and other scenes removed from new cut
Baahubali: The Epic, which combines Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali: The Conclusion into one movie, is all set to release in theatres this Friday. Ahead of the film’s release, SS Rajamouli listed the portions that had to be omitted.
SS Rajamouli’s iconic film Baahubali: The Epic is all set to re-release in theatres on October 31. The film combines Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion into one single film. In a new interview featuring the films’ leading men, Prabhas and Rana Daggubati and director SS Rajamouli, the trio discussed scenes that did not make it to the new version. Rajamouli candidly mentioned that the song Pacha Bottesina, which featured Tamannaah Bhatia and Prabhas romancing, has been removed from the new version of the film.
Portions omitted from Baahubali: The Epic
In the promotional interview, Rajamouli shared, “By merging both parts and removing the rolling titles, the total duration would have been around five hours and 27 minutes. The current version, however, runs for three hours and 43 minutes. Major portions that were removed include Avanthika’s love story with Shivudu, the songs Pacha Bottesina, Kanna Nidurinchara, and Irrukupo. Several sequences from the war episodes have also been trimmed.”
Rajamouli stated that while every scene of the franchise carries ‘emotional weight’ and is important to the narrative, the new version had to be story-driven.
“Every scene in Baahubali carries emotional weight and narrative importance, but we wanted the new version to be purely story-driven. The first cut was about four hours and ten minutes long. We held a special screening for both cinema and non-cinema audiences from different backgrounds, took their feedback, and then reduced it to three hours and 43 minutes,” revealed the director.
On Envisioning Baahubali: The Epic
SS Rajamouli revealed that they conceived the idea of Baahubali: The Epic, which combines the first two parts: Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017) about five years ago.
He said, “We came up with this idea five years ago – to see if the story could be told as a single film. We tried a linear narration; it didn’t work. Then we shortened scene lengths, which didn’t work either. Finally, we decided on removing episodes.”
Furthermore, addressing speculation about Baahubali 3, SS Rajamouli revealed that an animated version set against the same backdrop is in the works.