When asked SS Rajamouli, the director of Baahubali, he confirmed that the character was written for Prabhas specifically. He said, “We (Prabhas and I) worked on a film 10 years before this and we have been close friends. We would chat for hours and hours together deep into the night, just not about ‘Baahubali’, but different aspects of filmmaking, the philosophy of filmmaking.”

He also added, “We strike a chord with each other, we understand each other very well and he knew that I had a burning desire to make a war film and he was game for it. I mean we took Anushka or Sivagami or Kattapa, we took the actors based on the characters that were written, but with Prabhas, the character was written for him.”

Rajamouli’s selection had very much paid off. Prabhas committed himself to the franchise for a whole five years without complaining. Only Prabhas could have pulled off Baahubali.