In Mumbai, we know actor Rana Daggubati best for the role of ‘Bhallaldev’ that he played in the ‘Baahubali’ franchise. But the movie star has a string of Telugu films to his credit. And what most people remain unaware of is Rana’s origins as a VFX specialist and his family’s interest in the Hyderabad-based Studio business.

Apart from the more famous Ramoji Studios in Hyderabad, Ramanaidu Studios is also a cinema hub in the South. Recently in a video-chat with Rana, we got chatting about the Studio business and how its future is likely to shape up in a COVID world.

Ask Rana about the COVID impact so far and he immediately underscores the need for content. This phase, he says, has highlighted the acute need for content across platforms. “Cinema has taken the biggest beating in terms of theatrical business,” he adds. “and It will be a while before it gets back on its feet. But the amount of content people consume has gone up triple or quadruple in this time. All of us don’t have enough to watch..”

As far as the studio business is concerned, Rana sees continued opportunities for growth because like he says ‘We’ve always been a Production house where a large part of the Studio used to be our own film work and very little was for Customer support. But now with the scale of things growing, we have a second and third studio that are under construction.”

While one of the family-owned studios is coming up in Vizag, Rana details why Hyderabad is a good shooting destination: “As a city, it is very convenient to shoot. Like California, it has flat light most of the year so everybody is shooting outdoors. There’s enough land that is available very close to the city. So if anybody is putting up big sets there are studio properties that are gated – whether it’s ours, Annapurna or Ramoji. There’s enough and more infrastructure that’s available in Hyderabad already.” And that’s not where the advantages end from Rana’s perspective. “If you want to make ‘Baahubali’ in Mumbai there is no space that is even reasonably close to the city where we can create these things. The cost of living in Hyderabad is much, much cheaper than Mumbai to hold an entire unit – whether it’s stay for people, the food… And also the language – Hyderabad speaks Hindi as much as it speaks Telugu. That way it’s a melting pot in terms of culture and language.”

But then what kind of films will be produced by their Studios in times to come? Rana says films like the ‘Baahubali’ franchise and Southern films with budgets of Rs 1-1.5 cr will form the core. “So the idea is to equip ourselves to make big cinema. The more you go with spectacle cinema the bigger and bigger they get. And the more and more they come back to the Studios to get them made. It’s going to be a big rise for the Studios once things get back into operation because the theatrical business will want only big spectacle films or big star films once things open because they will want to celebrate every weekend. The OTTs will want to generate constant content and they will want to keep their budgets in control. Studio is the only way you can actually do that,” he adds confidently.

The southern star’s projects in the pipeline reflect the tent-pole content he foresees maximum growth in. “I have two films ready to release,” he says with a chuckle. “‘Haathi Mere Saathi’ which is going to be out. The reason we held it back is because it’s a big theatrical experience. It’s shot in 3 languages and you want the big spectacle. I have another film called ‘Virata Parvam’. So as theatrical properties I have two large properties that are ready. Then there’s ‘Hiranyakashyap’, I’ve used this time to develop a lot of stories.”

As Indian content evolves Rana’s belief is that Indian filmmakers will concentrate on global content – like ‘a Tamil series that will be set in Madurai but will be relevant to the rest of the world. Whether it’s Bengali, Hindi, Marathi… it doesn’t matter where the production is from. Because there will be stories to be told and they are place-agnostic, You will see a huge rise in that content. Once a bunch of us crack this method of making big films inside a studio completely with a lot of computer graphics and visual effects that’s the direction we will take. We will proudly tell our stories. A Marathi film will tell a Shivaji story. A Malayalam film will tell a Raja Marthanda story. And all of India’s history and mythology lends itself to so much spectacle-scale cinema. We will reach a time where we will visually see all of that.”

A good time then to be in the business of entertainment? “There is an old saying that goes content is king,” beams Rana. “Now it’s pointed straight up. That’s the only way to go. You’ll see relationships between audiences and stars changing dramatically. The star will start getting closer and closer to people. There will be a huge rise in people creating IPs (Intellectual Property) in stories. I think it’s the content creators’ time. It’s a great time to be in Entertainment!”

About his impending wedding coming up in August Rana says it will be ‘small, simple, happy. There are only so many friends we can call… How many family we can call… It’s going to be little.”

The wedding may be little but his cinema will be big. Doubtless, the world will be watching both with animated glee … the wedding and what comes up next in Rana’s growing filmography!