How An Unusual IMAX Screening Inspired The Massive Fantasy Epic Varanasi [Exclusive]

Perhaps there's a reason why director S.S. Rajamouli's "RRR" and the recent re-release of his "Bāhubali" films (which are now expanding with an animated spin-off) have taken root in the West. As more and more Hollywood blockbusters can't help but seem lacking in certain regards, moviegoers hoping to scratch that spectacle-sized itch hardly need to look elsewhere. Animated 2025 offerings like "Ne Zha 2," "Demon Slayer," and "Chainsaw Man" more than delivered on that front, but perhaps Rajamouli's next effort will fill that gap even more.

Fans received their first look at the trailer for "Varanasi" in November of 2025, but /Film enjoyed an even more up-close and personal experience at the time. I was fortunate enough to attend that announcement event for "Varanasi" in-person and visit the set located all the way in Hyderabad, India (with more in-depth details on that coming at a later date). I was also able to interview the man behind it all, whose filmmaking style and idiosyncratic approach to larger-than-life material has made him a known commodity internationally. With his profile and body of work now translating to Western shores, I took the opportunity to ask him about what went into his latest blockbuster epic.

According to Rajamouli, he pinpoints two major sources of inspiration. Given the visuals on display in the trailer, it should (hopefully) come as no surprise that "Varanasi" pulls from ancient Hindu texts, particularly one titled "Ramayana." But, interestingly enough, the director also credits an IMAX screening he once attended for helping him develop the visual language of his latest film ... and not just any movie, but a nature documentary. Let that be a lesson to the film students out there: You simply never know when inspiration may strike.

As much as IMAX has become such an important staple of the moviegoing experience throughout the last several years, this is only a relatively new development in India — but one that had a profound impact on director S.S. Rajamouli. During his interview with /Film, I asked him about which movies (if any) influenced the visuals and narrative direction he wanted to take with "Varanasi." His thoughtful answer may surprise you. According to the filmmaker, "For me, 15 years back when IMAX [...] built a theater here in Hyderabad, the first IMAX cinema. We had very few movies. Maybe one was 'Polar Express' ... Very few movies were there, so most of the time, IMAX used to play the documentaries that were shot with IMAX."

The trailer for "Varanasi" certainly teases imagery that evokes that of nature documentaries — though on a vastly larger canvas. Rajamouli went on to explain the emotional effect this experience had on him and how this ultimately went on to play a crucial role in developing the signature look and feel of his movies (particularly when it comes to "Varanasi"):

"That was something. That was gorgeous. And it was just a documentary — just a 15-minute, 20-minute documentary, but just seeing the vision used to make me so emotional. I remember they shot one sequence in Everest where the camera was going over a gorge or something. And there was one in Africa where the camera was going across the wildebeest, I thought, 'Wow.' Just the visual. There was no story, there was no character, there was no creative things happening there, but just that magnificence, just the scale made me so emotional. So, I think that stayed in my mind."

While that provides clarity into what "Varanasi" will look like, what is the story actually about? That's a little more complicated, particularly since writer/director S.S. Rajamouli is playing things close to the chest at this early juncture. What we do know is that Mahesh Babu plays a truly extravagant, mythic hero named Rudhra and Priyanka Chopra Jonas portrays a character named Mandakini, while Prithviraj Sukumaran is set to appear as the villainous Kumbha. The trailer footage certainly provides glimpses into the tone and stylistic choices of this epic, but that's about it. 

As far as the plot goes, I asked Rajamouli to describe exactly which Hindu texts he's pulling from in order to build out this blockbuster. According to the filmmaker, two ancient Hindu myths known as "Ramayana" (a tale of a wandering prince vaguely similar to "The Odyssey") and "Mahabharata" (a much more warlike narrative closer in scope and scale to "The Iliad") both factored into the film ... but only one represents the movie's actual source material. As he explained:

"All my films have some kind of inspiration from the epics of 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata.' And now this is not just an inspiration. This is directly, I'm shooting an episode from 'Ramayana' itself, which I never expected that I would do so soon. Even at the beginning of writing this story, I didn't expect that I would be having an episode of 'Ramayana' in the film. It so happened, so I consider myself very fortunate to get the chance to shoot a small part of that epic in 'Varanasi.'"

Though not quite a full-length adaptation like Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," "Varanasi" stands to pull off a similar feat when it arrives in theaters on April 7, 2027.