Baahubali is an armour for me

Rana Daggubati introspects about how Baahubali propelled him into stardom, the scope of storytelling in cinema, and his foray into digital media

Actor Rana Daggubati’s character, Bhallaladev, in the Baahubali film franchise, has taken him to a new level of popularity pan-India. He feels that the film, which broke box office records, has opened avenues for him like no other.

“Baahubali is like an armour that I have, like Karna did. Every time I want to do some big crazy thing, Baahubali offers that to me. It’s like a big shadow, protecting me and letting me do things which I couldn’t do earlier. Even if I wanted to do a submarine-based war film like Ghazi, in Telugu and Tamil earlier, there was no chance I was going to do that. I was able to do all this stuff (because of Baahubali) and that’s what Baahubali is and it will always be like that for me for the rest of my life,” says Rana.

“We come from a land of storytelling. It’s ultimately a story that you tell. When a story is not region-bound, I just take it and keep thinking what story I am telling,” says the Baby and Dum Maro Dum actor.

The actor has recently ventured into the space of digital media and will soon be seen in a web series called Social. Taking risks has never been a point of worry for him.

“All my life I have been experimenting. I don’t know what works and what doesn’t and it just keeps me excited because you hear new stories and get into that work,” he says.

Baahubali is like a big shadow, protecting me and letting me do things which I couldn’t do earlier RANA DAGGUBATI, ACTOR