Varanasi Trailer: RRR Director S. S. Rajamouli's New Movie Somehow Looks Even Crazier

In 2022, S. S. Rajamouli unleashed one of the greatest pieces of cinema in history. Having already delivered a fantasy epic on par with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with the "Baahubali" duology, he followed that up with "RRR," a movie that broke borders, language barriers and genre barriers to become a bonafide cultural phenomenon, box office hit, and a groundbreaking Oscar winner — even if the live performance could have been better. The movie was not just a hit in India, but packed theaters across the U.S., with people performing the "Naatu Naatu" in the theater while the movie played, it inspired the leading opera group in Japan to put on a stage performance inspired by the movie, and more.

This is to say, Rajamouli's follow-up to "RRR" was always going to be a hugely anticipated and scrutinized movie given just how many incredible moments that movie has. Now that we finally have the first footage of the director's latest epic, any doubt that he couldn't deliver another big spectacle movie have dissipated. That's because "Varanasi" somehow looks even more ambitious in scope and in bombastic action, and we can't wait to see more.

The trailer doesn't offer many plot details, but the title itself is already a good hint as to what kind of movie this is (compared to previous working titles like "Gen 63" and "SSMB 29"). "Varanasi" is the name of a real city, one of the oldest cities in the world that has been continually inhabited, and it is also the name of an ancient kingdom that the legendary hero Rama once ruled. This is important because what we can actually get from the trailer is an epic spanning millennia, a movie featuring actual gods, a globetrotting adventure.

The trailer opens in the year 512 CE in the ancient kingdom of Varanasi, before jumping to 2017 as a meteor approaches a city, while explorers in Antarctica get close to an old ship frozen in an iceberg. Then we go back to the year 7200 BCE to witness a massive battle involving hordes of humans and gods, with Lord Rama standing atop a giant tower of men firing an arrow at the incoming Lord Hanuman. Finally, the trailer ends with superstar Mahesh Babu as the main character, riding a bull and wielding a trident as we see the pyramids behind him.

Truly, this feels bigger than any movie out there, an epic spanning ancient kingdoms, gods, and even the future. Though not featured in the trailer, we know (via SS Rajamouli's Twitter) the villain of the movie, Kumbha (played by Prithviraj Sukumaran) is also a sci-fi villain that uses a wheelchair assisted by Doc Ock-style robot arms.

Very curiously, Rajamouli has previously said the movie is heavily inspired by the "Indiana Jones" movies and Dan Brown books (via Tribune India) and based on how the trailer jumps from Africa to India to Antarctica and beyond, we have here a movie ready to be the biggest movie event of 2027 (suck it, "Avengers: Secret Wars.") All we have left to do is speculate about whether there will be another meaning to the title of the film like with "RRR."

"Varanasi" is set to be released at some point in 2027.