3 minutes of readingNew DelhiFebruary 4, 2026 04:25 pm IST
All the fans of the Telugu film industry are desperately waiting for the release of director SS Rajamouli’s film Varanasi. The film is scheduled for release in 2027, but the cast and director have already started promotion. During a recent interview, actors Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran sat down discusses his experience on the sets of Varanasi and especially with Rajamouli.
The trio sat down with Collider on their YouTube channel and talked about their journey to the film and what it’s been like to this point. Prithviraj plays the film’s main antagonist, Kumbha, who is confined to a wheelchair. The interviewer talked about what it was like to perform without the use of any of his limbs and before Prithviraj could respond, Mahesh jumped in to tell a story.
He said, “I’m glad you asked this because there was one day of filming where he had a long monologue.” But he had flies all over his face and the poor guy couldn’t do anything about it; he couldn’t move. For this shoot, he literally prayed that the flies wouldn’t bother him. “I think they heard his prayers.”
Prithviraj Sukumaran as Kumbha in Varanasi. (Photo: X/SS Rajamouli)
Explaining the process, Prithviraj said, “To make sure I don’t involuntarily move my arms and legs, they are sort of locked in place by a mechanism. So I can be sure that, ‘whatever I do, I’m not going to move my hands or legs’. Which also means that if a fly lands on my nose… But yeah, there’s a lot more to the wheelchair than what you see in the picture. It’s an extension of his personality and how he works. He’s a very dangerous man; it turns out he’s incapacitated.”
Hearing the thinking behind the villain, the host pointed out that Rajamouli really loves his villains. To prove this, Mahesh shared another anecdote and said, “I have an elephant’s memory and I remember everything. Before he narrated this story, and this was one of the first meetings… During RRR, he was wondering what kind of film we wanted to make. We hadn’t zeroed in on a script yet. He finished lunch and asked me, ‘Do you have something in mind?’ ‘I thought: What do I say to him? I mean, his vision is so big.” When he left, I texted him and said, ‘I’m so happy to be doing this movie with you.’ I really like how you present your heroes.; You really love them.’ He said, ‘Thank you, but I love my villains more.'”