SS Rajamouli is currently crafting the biggest film of his career and the film titled Varanasi features Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra, Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead roles. From the past few days there are speculations about the film’s budget saying that the film costs Rs 1200-1300 crores. This is completely untrue. Rajamouli has worked on the idea for a year and he planned the shoot, schedules and finalized the actors, technicians. He did not lock any budget for the film and he asked the producer to offer him a free hand. Apart from the remunerations and making, a major amount of budget will be spent on the VFX work. Several top Hollywood studios are working for Varanasi.

Rajamouli is one director who takes minimal remuneration for every film and he holds 50 percent of the post-release profits. After recovering the investment, he would share 50 percent profits from Varanasi. The film also marks the debut of his son SS Karthikeya as producer. Mahesh Babu is working on a salary basis per year. The film’s producer KL Narayana is just pooling the money after he is extremely confident of recovering the entire budget. Rajamouli also chalked out the release plan for the film and he would associate with a top Hollywood studio for an international release for Varanasi.

The makers are quite confident that they can recover the entire investment through the non-theatrical and Indian theatrical rights. All that comes from outside India will be a profit for the makers before the release.