Rajamouli Reveals ‘Mexico’ Touch Behind Baahubali

For years, Baahubali has been celebrated as an example of rooted Indian storytelling. Which it is. But visually, it was never “purely Indian.” The scale, the geometry, the step-like architecture, a lot of it actually appears like Mayan civilisation. And now, Rajamouli is saying it out loud that he drew inspiration from the actual Mayan monuments that are still out there.

Rajamouli didn’t just build Mahishmati. He borrowed it. At CCXP Mexico, the legendary filmmaker openly admitted that the visual design of Mahishmati in Baahubali was inspired by Mexican history. Specifically, monuments like Chichen Itza are behind the idea of building stepped structures in Mahismati city, whose base is built at Ramoji Film City and extended through Computer Graphics. Expressing that he doesn’t know much about Mexico, other than taking visual references, Rajamouli felt glad that RRR made him closer to the world audience, as for the first time in his illustrious 25-year career, he felt like he could make the world cry, laugh, and feel the emotions he creates in his films.

Indian directors earlier focused on local authenticity. Rajamouli does something else. He blends. Takes Indian emotion, layers it with global visual references, and packages it for a worldwide audience. Perhaps that’s the reason his films like Baahubali and RRR travelled to Japan first and many other countries later. And now with his next film, Varanasi, he’s taking that approach even further.