The success of Baahubali series has if anything brought in more producers to invest big numbers and make films on a grand scale in the Telugu film industry. Hence it doesn't come as a surprise when 3 of the top 5 most expensive movies of the country belong to Tollywood.
Two of these aforementioned these three films await release and here we take a quick look at them along with one other big-budgeted counterpart of theirs.
Saaho (UV Creations, T-Series)
Actor Prabhas's first release post the Baahubali mania, this upcoming action thriller is touted to be made at a whopping budget of ₹350 crore (US$51 million) and will be released in four languages (simultaneously shot in Telugu, Hindi, dubbed in Tamil, Malayalam) on August 30, 2019. The film also has over 150 set pieces, designed by production designer Sabu Cyril which explains the scale on which it is mounted.
Prabhas recently admitted to have taken a 20% pay cut to make Saaho possible (since the initial budget for the film was ₹150 crore but the scale got bigger during development) and also revealed that one of the major highlights of this VFX-heavy film will be a 12-minute sequence budgeted at ₹80 cr. [Side Note: Prabhas is admittedly done with big-budget movies because of the time frame it consumes and will focus on doing two films per year going ahead]
Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (Konidela Production Company)
The muti-starrer star cast of this film ensures coverage of audiences in Hindi (Amitabh Bachchan), Tamil (Vijay Sethupathi), Malayalam (Nayanthara) and Kannada (Kichcha Sudeep) besides Telugu (Chiranjeevi, Tamannaah), and the film is mounted on an estimated budget of ₹200 crore (US$29 million).
The story is set 30 years prior to the India's first independence war in 1857 and producer Ram Charan did not bat an eye before spending ₹45 crore (US$6.5 million) on a single war sequence for the film. Given the scrutiny surrounding the movie's lead character (historians believe Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy merely revolted against the British and did not wage any wars against them), that is one hefty sum. Sye Raa releases October 2, 2019.
RRR (DVV Entertainment)
RRR is to director S.S. Rajamouli, what Saaho is to Prabhas, thier first film post the Baahubali series. The movie is a fictional version of India's lesser known freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem and has an illustrious star cast of Jr. NTR (Tarak), Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn among others.
The film is expected to be releasing in 2020 and is said to be budgeted at a whopping ₹400 crore(US$58 million), making it the second most expensive film from India.