Darling Prabhas

He says he is like a kid only... quite like Mahendra Bahubali — but for this t2oS girl, Prabhas was, is and will be The Man 

Travelling to Mahishmati” read my Facebook post as I flew down to Hyderabad to meet the cast and crew of Bahubali on Puja-eve. From a grand Mahishmati welcome at the hotel foyer to a royal invitation kept on the table, it was quite the scene setting. But all that faded into insignificance next to the fact that I was going to meet “Darling” Prabhas, whose turn as Amarendra Bahubali drew me to the theatres to watch Bahubali: The Conclusion, not once but thrice.

But if anyone meeting Prabhas is expecting the regal presence of a Bahubali they would be sorely disappointed. The actor behind the man who had taken the country by storm ever since he stepped on to the screen to stop a rampaging elephant in Bahubali: The Conclusion couldn’t be more different. Not in terms of stature, because though the bulging muscles are gone, he is still a strappingly tall, well-built lad. And his voice, if anyone is mad enough to have watched the film’s Telugu version without understanding a word — as I obviously have — still has the baritone that warms the cockles of your heart. What is starkly different, however, is the personality.

When Prabhas walks into the conference room at Park Hyatt in Hyderabad in a light blue cotton shirt, leather pants and kitos, it is nothing like Amarendra striding into the Mahishmati throne room when Devasena is arrested. 
The 37-year-old walks in, instead, with a shy smile on his handsome face, hardly meeting anyone’s eye in the room. But once the interview starts and the same dreamy eyes look right at you, the childish smile in place, every Prabhas fan would be right where I was... Absolutely Smitten.

The Bahubali Hangover

If Prabhas’s role as Mahendra, the hot-headed, childish and spontaneous hero of Bahubali: The Beginning got the ball rolling two years ago, his turn as Amarendra in Bahubali: The Conclusion, which released in April this year, turned the “Darling” of south Indian cinema into a pan-Indian sensation overnight. Something even Prabhas wasn’t prepared for.

“Not till I got Bahubali did I ever think I’d be part of something this big. As I have said before, it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in a film like this and thankfully it worked also. So this is going to be something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

But won’t living up to the success of Bahubali, which grossed Rs 1,725 crore (worldwide), spell Pressure with a capital P? “Bahubali is a film that happens once in a lifetime. I don’t think it is right to compare any other script or film with Bahubali. You should forget Bahubali, set it aside and go for scripts that interest you.”

Easier said than done when you are part of a film for five years, something not every actor would be ready to commit to. Prabhas admits it isn’t easy to shake off the effects. “I’ve already started shooting for Saaho but I still feel like I am part of Bahubali and there is some patchwork still left to do for Bahubali 2,” he laughs. But Bahubali director S.S. Rajamouli tells us that Prabhas did at least one thing to mark the end of the five-year journey — “The first thing he did was get rid of his beard and moustache and long hair!” 

A message from Rajamouli

It was the chance to work with Rajamouli again, with whom he had done the 2005 film Chatrapathi, that convinced Prabhas to embark on Mission Bahubali for five years. “I’ve known him for a very long time and he is really mad about his work and he was trying to make something big. We didn’t know how the audience was going to accept it, but the way he was planning it, and knowing Rajamouli he always makes a success of his films. So I believed in him. Luckily we got great producers and they took the challenge to make the film big. So we just believed in Rajamouli and gave him whatever we could for the film.”

Amidst all the accolades Prabhas has got for Bahubali, including the ones from all his fans, it is a call from Rajamouli telling him that he really liked a particular scene that remains the most memorable. “Once Rajamouli messaged me after seeing the rushes about a shot that he really loved. I called all my staff and we had a party that day! Because Rajamouli never compliments you that directly, I was very happy,” grins Prabhas, his childlike glee more in tune with Mahendra Bahubali. 

Something Prabhas agrees with. “I don’t think I could be compared with any of the characters, they are very different. But if I had to, I think I’ll probably be more like Shivudu (Mahendra). I think I am more like a kid only.”

Action Hero To Ladies’ Man

As all Prabhas fans will tell you, he is essentially the angry young man of south Indian cinema. Whether Rajamouli’s Chatrapathi, where he plays a dock worker who fights for the rights of his fellow workers, his 2012 hit revenge drama Rebel or his biggest hit before Bahubali, Mirchi in 2013. But he’s done his fair share of romances too, from Prabhudheva’s Pournami to Darling, the film that got him the ‘Darling Prabhas’ tag. But it is the comedy in films like Mr. Perfect that the Bahubali man finds the hardest to tackle. “I think comedy is tougher. I think action and intense roles work better. Comedy is not easy. I think it is the toughest part of a film, performance-wise.”

Prabhas is set to continue his winning romantic action man act with the upcoming trilingual film Saaho — “a love story with intense action”, is how he describes it — with Shraddha Kapoor. He is tight-lipped about Bollywood offers, but he does assure us that he is getting some good ones. So here’s hoping we see more of our Darling on the Bollywood screen.

The Shy Guy

So how does a man known to be chronically shy get in front of the camera to play the angry young man or a hopeless romantic, or even more surprisingly, a charismatic character like Amarendra Bahubali? “I don’t know,” says Prabhas, ducking his head. “I guess I don’t have a choice, given that this is my bread and butter. I have to deal with it, at least in front of the camera. It is difficult. Sometimes when there are too many people around and I feel very shy I try to keep my voice low while I act. I did that during Bahubali also. I’ll try to avoid most of the people on the set,” he says with a self-deprecating chuckle.

He goes on to regale us with stories from the sets of Bahubali when his shyness reared its head at inopportune moments. “I remember while we were shooting the Manohari song (from The Beginning) there were three girls who came into the set, they came with someone from outside and I felt so shy I asked my cameraman to cover them with a mat or something (laughs). For some reason they couldn’t stop them from being on the set. I don’t know who they were.”

“When I am doing an emotional scene, like when Bahubali is dying after Katappa stabs  him, I am usually in a little bit of a mood. Rajamouli would come to me and if I said let’s go and see if the shot is ready, he would say, ‘No, no you’ll just get shy! Just sit here, I’ll tell you when I need you for the shot’.”

Food & friends

Being a Prabhas fan — koi shaq?! — I was eager to find out what made the man tick off-screen and discovered that he is a foodie. He loves north Indian food, especially Punjabi cuisine. In fact, according to Prabhas, if he hadn’t been acting he would have been in the food business. “I would have been a businessman with a restaurant or a hotel, because my family loves food. We are mad about food. I would have been 120 or 130kg, really fat! I would just eat and relax with all my friends. I would love to have someone to call to bring me snacks at 3.30 in the morning!”

And yes, friendship means a lot to him. “I am more of a friend person... 24 hours you’ll find me with friends. I have friends in the industry as well, so I work with many of my friends. My next film’s producers are my friends; 24 hours I need my friends. Without them I don’t know how I would survive.”

The Darling’s Darlings

Talk to him about the thousands of female fans he has gathered across the country since the release of Bahubali 2 and he blushes. “I just hope I am able to keep their faith in me. I hope I am able to live up to their expectations,” he says.
But the Darling of thousands himself has a celebrity crush since childhood that a little birdie had told t2oS. So when we asked him about his crush on Raveena Tandon, he broke into a wide smile saying, “Ya! Oh my god, yes, yes. I am a big fan of Raveena. Definitely!” And his favourite Raveena moment? “That Andaz Apna Apna song, Elo ji sanam (sings), every time I saw that song I was like ohhhh!” (Clutches his chest with a smitten look on his face)

Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt also find mention as actresses he really likes and would like to work with.

In case of actors it is Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan and, of course, Amitabh Bachchan.  “Amitabh Bachchan sir... is anyway a legend. I would definitely like to work with Amitabh sir once, if I can.”

Despite the fact that our time together was really short, at one point I realised I was so completely drawn in by his shy charm and guileless smile that I was grinning at him like a fool. At which point I shook myself out of the spell, reminding myself to remain professional and objective. (Fat chance! At one point he distractedly touched my jeans-clad knee to emphasise something; I am never washing that pair of jeans again!)

— Chandreyee Chatterjee
Bahubali: The Conclusion will have its TV premiere on Sony MAX, today at 1pm