S.S. Rajamouli, the visionary director behind RRR and Baahubali, builds his epics around colossal heroes and equally formidable adversaries. His upcoming project, Varanasi, pairs Tollywood titan Mahesh Babu as the protagonist with Prithviraj Sukumaran — best known for Salaar — as the film’s menacing antagonist.
At a high-profile announcement in Hyderabad, an event attended by Polygon, Prithviraj recounted how the role found him. “I got a message from Rajamouli,” he said. “He told me the antagonist had turned out exceptionally well and asked if I’d be interested. A few days later I was in his office.”
He described his first reaction to the story: “Five minutes into the narration I was stunned. I listened like a kid opening the next issue of his favorite comic. Where does someone find the imagination to stage something like this?”
Prithviraj called the part “one of the most complex, and both emotionally and physically demanding” characters Rajamouli has devised.
Concrete plot details for Varanasi are still being guarded (the film’s title alone hints at thematic threads for those who dig deeper). Even less is revealed about Prithviraj’s character, Kumbha — he is absent from the new teaser. A recently released character poster, however, depicts Kumbha seated in a futuristic wheelchair equipped with multiple mechanical arms reminiscent of Doc Ock, implying a cerebral, tech-adept adversary in the vein of Lex Luthor rather than a brute-force villain.
Priyanka Chopra, who portrays the film’s lead Mandakini, reacted to the footage at the event: “Prithviraj, you’re terrifying in the film,” she said, before noting, “But off-camera he’s the exact opposite.”
Image: Sri Durga ArtsAnticipation for Varanasi is already building; the film is slated for release in 2027, about five years after Rajamouli’s previous blockbuster, RRR. For Prithviraj — a star whose career is rooted in Malayalam cinema — collaborating with Rajamouli felt significant.
“This is a work of cinema we believe will become a shared point of pride,” he said, lauding Rajamouli’s ambition to showcase Indian filmmaking on an ever-larger global stage. “We hope this one is bigger, bolder, and even more audacious.”
Source: Polygon
