‘In my novels, kingdom of Mahishmathi is grimmer’
Writing a prequel to a successful movie is much tougher than writing an independent novel,” says author Anand Neelakantan, who was well aware of the stakes when he started writing a prequel to the hit film series, Bahubali. The widespread fan following the films enjoy and a personal connect the audiences feel with its characters, already make for an interesting start.
He has now come out with the second part of the prequel, Chaturanga, a follow-up to The Rise of Sivagami.
Neelankantan says writing more cinematically was a task. Also, the characters he writes about already have a face, voice and presence, unlike others, which are shaped in readers’ minds. But, he found a leeway: “They were middle-aged characters in the film, my story concerns their teenage and youth. That gave me an advantage to play around.”
But how does he find the middle ground between the appreciation a reader might shower and the intrigue a film buff may look forward to? He says, “Anyone who has read Rise of Sivagami would know it is darker, more layered than the film. I could write a novel that is populist, commercially successful and deeply satisfying at the same time.”
And Chaturanga “delves deeper into this world.” “It is not the perfect Mahishmathi of the film, but a darker, grimmer one,” he says, adding that he drew inspiration from Chola, Kakatiya and Vijayanagara Empires to “create the story world of Bahubali.”
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