Upcoming Epic Varanasi From RRR Director Has A Scope That Makes Avatar Feel Small [Exclusive] – SlashFilm

North American audiences and plenty of others within the West have quite a lot of catching as much as do. It was telling that, when “RRR” first made its option to our shores in 2022, most of us had been caught utterly unaware. Director S.S. Rajamouli hadn’t but grow to be a identified amount right here, whereas we remained blissfully unaware of the bromance between fundamental stars N.T. Rama Rao, Jr. and Ram Charan as the 2 protagonists. When Rajamouli’s subsequent film arrives in 2027 with “Varanasi,” nicely, we’ll have formally run out of excuses with regards to consciousness.

However leaping diving headfirst into one thing like Indian cinema will be intimidating, which is probably going why comparisons have rapidly grown between the epic-sized storytelling “Varanasi” appears to be providing and our closest reside-motion equal: James Cameron’s “Avatar.” In November of 2025, /Movie was one of some retailers invited to Hyderabad, India, to go to the set of the upcoming movie and attend the announcement/trailer occasion — a one-of-a-variety expertise held in an outside amphitheater with Rajamouli; his fundamental forged of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Malayalam actor Prithviraj Sukumaran, and Telugu star Mahesh Babu; and over 50,000 passionate followers.

Afterwards, I had the chance to speak with the trio of stars and state the apparent: that there actually aren’t any correct comparability factors for what “Varanasi” seems to offer. Even the luxurious landscapes of Pandora cannot compete with a gargantuan, visible results-heavy blockbuster that leans closely on Hindu mythology and most of the best, spectacle-sized traditions of what is often called the Tollywood business in India. So this is why all these “Avatar” comparisons can not help however fall woefully quick.

Hollywood has a wealthy and treasured historical past of manufacturing a few of the greatest and most epic motion pictures the world has ever seen, from “Ben-Hur” to “The Ten Commandments” to “Cleopatra,” however is it doable that we’re not on the leading edge anymore? With trilogies like “The Lord of the Rings” firmly within the rearview mirror, James Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise may be the closest factor Hollywood has to a contemporary torchbearer lately, however even that may’t fairly reside as much as the extent of storytelling occurring in “Varanasi.”

Throughout my interview with the forged for /Movie, I admitted that I went in searching for an American equal to the trailer footage we noticed. This was a tall activity, because it seems, on condition that this melodrama entails Hindu gods and mythological landscapes and what would possibly even be described as a time-journey aspect — or, no less than, one harking back to the sweeping timeline of “2001: A House Odyssey.” When posed with “Avatar” as a doable touchstone, Priyanka Chopra Jonas very diplomatically addressed the query:

“I imply, scale? Perhaps. However there’s a lot that occurs on this film […] We begin from 7,000 BCE and we come all the way down to 2027. So that you’re trendy, modern and, on the identical time, your time touring. Nevertheless it’s not like ‘Again to the Future.’ It is not such as you get right into a machine and journey. You will see how that occurs inside, for our characters. And on the identical time, it is an journey movie. So it is like, ‘Oh, is it like an ‘Indiana Jones?” Nevertheless it’s not simply that.”

After we carried out this interview late final yr, principal pictures on “Varanasi’ had solely been in its most preliminary levels — in truth, the forged had but to even step foot on the set {that a} group of journalists and I visited earlier that day. (Extra on that at a later date.) However based mostly on sure location taking pictures in Africa, greenscreen work, and plentiful discussions they’d already had with director S.S. Rajamouli all through the method, it is clear that everybody concerned has a transparent imaginative and prescient of what the ultimate product shall be.

For now, all makes an attempt to field “Varanasi” into anyone style label are doomed to fail. To Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who portrays one of many fundamental heroes named Mandakini, it is merely greatest to take this expertise for what it’s. Based on the star, it is completely in contrast to something we have seen but, from the director and even from the medium total:

“It’s a style of its personal, I believe. And I believe that is what [S.S. Rajamouli’s] ambition was, to create one thing which is his greatest, most bold challenge, however on the identical time to create a style of cinema inside itself. And that is so thrilling.”

If Rajamouli’s “RRR” and his “Baahubali” epics already defied conventions, that will have solely been a style of what we’re in for with “Varanasi.” By all accounts, nonetheless, the wait shall be value it. “Varanasi” hits theaters on April 7, 2027.