Notably, this is not a mere re-release — as Rajamouli has meticulously crafted a new version that promises a breath-taking visual spectacle.
Published Nov 04, 2025 | 3:46 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 04, 2025 | 3:46 PM
'Baahubali-The Epic' . (X)
Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) marks its 10th anniversary this year, and to celebrate the milestone, director SS Rajamouli has unveiled a brand-new film titled Baahubali: The Epic.
This unique creation serves as a reimagined blend of both Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), making it a first-of-its-kind venture in Indian cinema.
With a runtime of 3 hours and 45 minutes, Baahubali: The Epic features re-edited sequences, newly added scenes, and several deleted portions, offering audiences a refreshed cinematic experience.
Notably, this is not a mere re-release — as Rajamouli has meticulously crafted a new version that promises a breath-taking visual spectacle.
‘Baahubali- The Epic’ showing in theatres. (X)
A major highlight of the new film is that the majority of the romance scenes between Shivudu (Prabhas) and Avanthika (Tamannaah Bhatia) from the first part have been trimmed.
The “Pacha Bottesina” song which shows the love story between the duo and the controversial scenes including the disrobing of Avanthika, the tattoo scene have been deleted.
There have been strong criticisms of the scenes. Although the filmmakers have not officially responded, actor Tamannaah Bhatia addressed the issue in a recent interview with Lallantop.
She was asked about the portrayal of female bodies on screen, particularly in reference to a 2015 article published in The Hindu BusinessLine titled “The Rape of Avanthika”, written by well-known film critic Anna MM Vetticad.
Tamannaah responded, saying, “I don’t think it was ‘The rape of Avanthika’. I think it was Avanthika finding herself through a young man who is wooing her.” She described the scene as “pure” and claimed that the criticism stemmed from sexual repression.
“When people can’t control you, they use shame and guilt as tools to make you feel that you should be ashamed of whatever you do. Because when they make you feel shame, they gain control over you,” Tamannaah said in the interview.
She further added, “If you show someone the purest thing, but that person believes sex is bad, or the body is bad, or the entire system is bad, then that’s all they will see.”
In response, Vetticad posted a rejoinder on social media, clarifying the intent behind her 2015 article.
“The Rape of Avanthika” was a critique of a scene in S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Beginning in which Avanthika (played by Bhatia) attacks Prabhas’ character in reaction to his incursions on her body portrayed in the preceding scenes. “When “The Rape of Avanthika” was published, I was flooded with responses from readers who said it resonated with them, including a large number who told me they had, until then, assumed they were alone in their discomfort with that scene in Baahubali.
Simultaneously came a spate of communal and misogynistic online attacks, in addition to vulgar, sexually explicit abuse”, she said. “Having faced those attacks, I still say that Bhatia’s latest interview is the most inexplicable and absurd response to the article I have received in these 10 years. The article was concerned about the romanticisation of sexual violence in a film. Bhatia has somehow interpreted that concern as an aversion to sex, Vetticad wrote.
In her rejoinder, Vetticad clarified that the controversial scene in Baahubali depicted a woman who was initially outraged by the repeated violation of her bodily integrity by a man, but eventually ends up making love to him.
“It is dangerous,” she wrote, “because it echoes the harmful message our society often gives boys and men — that when a woman says no, she actually means maybe or yes; that true love or genuine attraction means persisting even after she rejects your advances; and that it is a man’s role to ‘make her realise’ how beautiful she is.”
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Commenting about this same controversial scenes in Baahubali, Kochi-based Annu Mathew, senior copy editor of an online media portal said that poetic representation of sexual violence —or even a man repeatedly overriding a woman’s clear denial of consent — is a big No-No, especially when we are trying to teach the idea of consent to little girls and even the society at large.
“Even if we take a middle ground and argue that it was not a poetic representation of sexual violence depicted in the scene between Prabhas and Tamannaah, it still remains a non-consensual act and the hero was clearly diluting her warrior form and saying that a feminine form is only what suits her,” she told South First.
Many social media users also had opined that the removal of these scenes in the new movie was apt.
A poster of the film ‘Baahubali-The Epic’. (X)
In a promotional chat, Rajamouli said that if both parts of Baahubali were combined without the end credits, the full movie would run about 5 hours and 27 minutes.
He mentioned that the current version is 3 hours and 43 minutes, and many important scenes were cut. These include Avanthika’s romance with Shivudu and the songs Pacha Bottesina, Kanna Nidurinchara, and Irrukupo.
Rajamouli shared that five years ago, he considered merging both films to see if the story could be told as one. They first tried a linear narration, which didn’t work. Then they shortened scene lengths, but that also failed. Finally, they decided to remove some episodes, including parts of the war scenes.
He said that every scene in Baahubali carried emotional meaning, but this time, the team wanted to focus more on the story.
The re-edited version of the movie ensures a smoother narrative flow. A voiceover summarizes the romance between Avantika and Shivudu, shown through a short montage that also explains who Avantika is and introduces her people.
Other major changes include the removal of Kattappa’s (Sathyaraj) introduction scene with Kiccha Sudeep, a few songs, and trimmed portions of the Mahishmati–Kalakeya war. Interestingly, some scenes that were deleted in the earlier versions have now been added back.
The first half ends with Kattappa killing Baahubali, as seen in the first film. The makers cleverly include an interval card: “YOU DON’T NEED TO WAIT TWO YEARS TO KNOW WHY KATTAPPA KILLED BAAHUBALI.” The second half begins with the opening scenes of Baahubali: The Conclusion.
This new version is a better watch — it removes problematic scenes while retaining the same grand visual experience.
(Edited by Sumavarsha)
