Prabhas made his debut with Jayanth C Paranjee’s Eeswar in 2002. He has been part of over 20 films to date. Of the 20-plus films, only eight are hits at the box office.
His debut film Eeswar was a typical “rich girl loves poor boy” story filled with all the clichés that we associate with the genre. Despite this, he made an impressive debut.
There was a time when Prabhas made efforts to cater equally to both masses and classes. For example, SS Rajamouli’s Chatrapathi was meant to make him the darling of the masses.
In Varsham and Mirchi, the Rebel Star struck a perfect balance between a romantic and an action hero. In between, he also tried his hand with a classy period film like Pournami (2006).
The Baahubali films directed by Rajamouli, of course, took the stardom of Prabhas to a different level. Baahubali 1&2 allowed him to portray different shades.
In the case of Saaho, director Sujeeth made a mess of what was essentially a revenge drama with an underworld background. The plot was convoluted with too many characters.
The reason behind Radhe Shyam’s failure was the lack of clarity on the part of director Radha Krishna Kumar. It also didn’t help that Prabhas and Pooja Hedge’s chemistry was unconvincing.
Om Raut’s take on the Ramayana is something that writer Valmiki would cringe at. With the weird tonality the director adopted Adipurush became a video game.