SS Rajamouli Completes 25 Years as a Director, From Student No. 1 to Varanasi

SS Rajamouli has now spent 25 years behind the camera. His career as a director began in 2001 with Student No. 1, which starred Jr NTR, and reports say the film came out on September 27 that year. Fans and industry colleagues are celebrating the milestone, and production house Arka Mediaworks has reportedly joined in.

Rajamouli learned his craft in television first, working on the serial Shanti Nivasam. Reports add that he also worked as an assistant director before his big screen debut, and that he grew up in a family of filmmakers, so stories were part of his life from an early age.

Simhadri and Chatrapathi came next and showed how well he could handle mass entertainers, with Simhadri turning NTR into a huge crowd puller. Along the way he reportedly tried new ground with Sye, a youth drama built around rugby, before Vikramarkudu and Yamadonga. Yamadonga took him into mythology and fantasy for the first time.

Magadheera was the big leap. It took one report to a scale nobody had tried before and pushed what the industry could do on a technical level. Eega then proved that an unusual idea could become a commercial hit when strong storytelling and imagination stand behind it. Maryada Ramanna is also said to have shown his range, since it worked without leaning on grand visuals.

The Baahubali films changed his standing for good. The two part epic crossed language barriers, widened the reach of one report and showed that Indian stories could travel far. RRR carried him to a world audience, and its song Naatu Naatu won an Academy Award.

Next up is Varanasi. Reports describe it as his global jungle adventure with Mahesh Babu, earlier known as SSMB29, and say it mixes mythology, action and elements of time travel on a massive scale. After 25 years, Rajamouli still sets his sights higher with every film.