The Man Who Helped Build the Empire Now Explains Why It Works

When Rana Daggubati stepped into the skin of the menacing Bhallaladeva for Baahubali in 2015, he became part of something no one in Indian cinema had quite seen before — a Telugu film that did not just perform at the box office but fundamentally changed what Indian cinema believed was possible. A decade later, as Tollywood continues its extraordinary run with films like Kalki 2898 AD and Pushpa 2, Daggubati has offered the clearest explanation yet for why it happened — and where the credit truly belongs.

It belongs, he says, to the audience.

"Telugu Audience Demanded Bigger, Better Cinema"

In a recent interview with Hindustan Times, Rana Daggubati reflected on the explosive growth of the Telugu film industry, pointing to its global success with films like Baahubali, the Pushpa series, and RRR. He argued that Telugu cinema is outperforming other industries because of the larger variety of content being produced — and because of the unique economic relationship between Telugu films and their audience. ANI News

"Telugu is doing better than other industries because of the larger variety of stuff that is being produced," Daggubati said. He also pointed to a crucial structural advantage: "The cost of going to the cinema in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is still not as expensive as Mumbai and Delhi." ANI News

That affordability, he argues, keeps the Telugu theatrical audience large, loyal, and demanding. When audiences show up consistently and in volume, filmmakers are both financially enabled and creatively pressured to deliver more. The result is an upward spiral of ambition — bigger budgets, bolder stories, better production values — that has now made Telugu the engine of Indian cinema's global ambitions.

Baahubali: The Film That Broke the Template

Daggubati has been consistent in identifying Baahubali as the watershed moment. "Why is Telugu cinema having a bright field day in a pan-India moment? Because there was a Baahubali, which broke the norms of what Telugu films can do in Mumbai. Post that, there was a wave of films from all across such as KGF, Kantara and Pushpa, that the whole country enjoyed. They could borrow from each other's success and data," he explained in a Hollywood Reporter India interview. Amar Ujala

Baahubali: The Beginning, released on July 10, 2015, was the first Telugu film to cross the ₹100 crore nett mark in its Hindi version — a milestone that shattered the assumption that regional language stories could not find mass audiences beyond their home states. The sequel, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, went even further, amassing ₹511 crore nett in Hindi alone and starting India's ₹1,000 crore club. ThePrint

Kalki 2898 AD: India's "Avengers Moment"

Even before Kalki 2898 AD released, Daggubati was one of its most vocal champions — despite not acting in it.

"The next big moment is Kalki. Not just India and the Indian diaspora but everyone in the world will connect to Kalki. For a long time, I have been waiting for an Avengers moment from our side. That's what has excited me to be part of it," he said ahead of the film's release. LatestLY

Daggubati — who has been friends with Kalki director Nag Ashwin since childhood — served as compere at the film's grand Mumbai launch event, which brought together Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Deepika Padukone on a single stage. Deccan Chronicle

His prediction proved accurate. Kalki 2898 AD went on to become one of the biggest Indian films of 2024, collecting ₹293 crore nett in Hindi alone and establishing Tollywood's ability to deliver mythological science-fiction at a scale previously unseen in Indian cinema.

Now: From Blockbusters to Indie Films — Rana's Next Mission

What makes Daggubati's current chapter genuinely surprising is that the man who helped build India's biggest blockbuster franchise is now equally focused on distributing its smallest, most intimate films.

Through his Spirit Media banner, Daggubati has distributed Payal Kapadia's Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine As Light and the Sundance 2025 Grand Jury Prize winner Sabar Bonda — the first Marathi-language film ever to premiere at Sundance. He argues that indie cinema needs the same data-driven consistency that commercial Telugu cinema used to build its pan-India dominance. The Free Press Journal

"We always believed that there was an audience for alternative cinema, we just didn't know where that audience was," he explained. His goal is to institutionalise indie distribution the same way Baahubali institutionalised the pan-India blockbuster — building a repeatable, scalable model where success feeds the next success. The Free Press Journal

What's Next: Baahubali: The Epic, Kaantha and More

Daggubati's current slate reflects his range: an untitled Hindi feature starring Manoj Bajpayee adapted from Aravind Adiga's novel Last Man in the Tower; Kaantha, a Tamil-language period noir drama-thriller starring Dulquer Salmaan and Daggubati himself; and three Telugu titles including Dark Chocolate, a pulpy dark-comedy thriller. OneIndia

Meanwhile, the Baahubali universe continues to expand. Baahubali: The Epic — a nearly four-hour single-cut remaster of both Baahubali films — became the biggest Indian re-release blockbuster of all time when it hit screens in October 2025. Kalki Part 2 is reported to have begun production in early 2026. Dainikjagranmpcg

Despite all the changes around him, Daggubati remains grounded about cinema's fundamental power. "Cinema will always find its beat; there are a few things that are still communal as watching a film together — that doesn't go away easily," he said. ANI News

Why This Matters for Indian Cinema in 2026

The story Rana Daggubati is telling — about audiences, ambition, data and scale — is really a story about what happens when a film industry listens to what its viewers are genuinely hungry for, and then bets everything on delivering it.

Telugu cinema did not dominate India's box office by accident. It did so because filmmakers from Rajamouli to Nag Ashwin responded to an audience that demanded more — more scale, more emotion, more spectacle, more story. That demand created Baahubali. Baahubali created the template. The template created an era.

And according to Rana Daggubati, the audience was always the architect.