SS Rajamouli and the team behind Baahubali: Eternal War provided new insights into the ambitious animated spin-off at the 2026 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. Director Ishan Shukla joins Rajamouli to talk about the film, getting the animation right and shares the inspiration behind the central concept.Producer Rajamouli introduced the CGI spin-off of the blockbuster franchise at the event. On the big stage, he said he had high expectations for the film as previous animated entries in the series failed to recapture the impact of the original live-action film.“We had some success, but never produced anything like Baahubali Franchise obtained. Then one day, another crazy guy came along, Ishan Shukla, who gave us an idea of what happens after Baahubali dies and he goes into 14 realms of Indian mythology,” he told fans and media.Directed by Shukla, “Baahubali: The Eternal War” tells the story of Baahubali as he enters the afterlife and becomes embroiled in an eternal battle between the gods and asuras across 14 realms.Speaking to Deadline after the speech, Shukla revealed that the idea came from his own spiritual journey in a monastery in Gujarat. “I spent about four years in a monastery in India, from about 30 to 35 years old,” he said. “There was a huge painting, a mural, in a temple in the 14th century. This idea bothered me for a long time.”Shukla said producer Shobu Yarlagadda approached him after watching his animated feature Schirkoa: Lies We Trust and said, “He could sense that I had a good grasp of the scale and a lot of the characters. He said maybe we should try something together. He is looking for the next Baahubali and something super unique. That’s how it started. “The filmmaker admitted that he was initially hesitant to take on the project because he’s known for his “super psychedelic” work, but added that the connecting thread was “world-building.”Sharing the biggest creative challenge while taking on the project, Shukla said it was transforming PrabhasThe iconic image of Baahubali was adapted into animation. “It was a very long process because we wanted to style him… If we tried too hard to make it look like the real Prabhas, it would start to look like a video game character,” he explains.“So we had to find a sweet spot where we were very, very religious about the style of the film, but we were also very religious about the fans of Prabhas. Fans of Prabhas, you know, they would kill you. So we had to make it very clear that it looked like Prabhas and that it was believable. We went through a lot of iterations and it was a little painful for him.”Paris-based animation director Antoine Charreyron, who worked on character design with Florent Auguy and Dorian Marchesin at Alcyde, said the mythology was far more complex and they initially expected it to be like The Lord of the Rings. “We thought it was simple. This is The Lord of the Rings. The gods and the asuras are the elves and the trolls. That was a mistake, it’s deeper than that. There are 14 realms, a lot of detail…every detail has meaning. So that’s really fun. “CGI supervisor Simon Brown, who joined the production in January, confirmed that work is now in full swing. “We’re deep into production. We’re building hundreds of characters, creatures, animals, props, vehicles, creating 38 environments across multiple realms.”Shukla added that the film is currently targeting completion in the second half of 2027, with plans to return to Annecy next year to showcase more footage from the project.
