Baahubali prequel novel 'The Rise of Sivagami' explores SS Rajamouli's epic universe

Baahubali prequel novel 'The Rise of Sivagami' explores SS Rajamouli's epic universe

Back in 2015, when Anand Neelakantan saw SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus Baahubali: The Beginning, he was confident that he would soon get a call from the director to adapt his previous novels Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, Ajaya: Roll of the Dice, and Ajaya: Rise of Kali into feature films.

He did get a call from Rajamouli; however, the director surprised Anand when he pitched the idea of writing a prequel novel to explore the origin of some of the key characters from the film like Sivagami and Kattappa.

Anand, who had been working on TV series like Siya Ke Ram, Chakravarthin Ashoka, and Mahabali Hanuman, shared his ideas with Rajamouli about how he envisioned the characters and the two bonded over their love for mythology and period dramas.

Admittedly, Rajamouli asked him to write down few scenes and later, went on to grade them on a scale of 1-10. “Some of the scenes got 8, 7. But then, there were scenes which got even 2,” Anand laughs as he goes down the memory lane.

By the end of the conversation, Rajamouli asked Anand to write a story incorporating scenes which were graded 7 and above. And thus began Anand Neelakantan’s journey to write ‘The Rise Of Sivagami’, the first of the three books which explore the untold stories of the Mahishmathi kingdom.

Anand finished writing the first draft of ‘The Rise Of Sivagami’ in 64 days and finished writing, editing the whole novel in 108 days. The book finally hit the shelves in mid March and it was officially launched in New Delhi on March 31. Rajamouli went on record to state that the books will be adapted into a TV series and the buzz surrounding the first part of the trilogy is palpable.