SS Rajamouli and the team behind ‘Baahubali: The Eternal War’ offered fresh insights into the ambitious animated spinoff at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Joining Rajamouli, was director Ishan Shukla, who spoke about the film, getting the animation right and also shared the inspiration behind the central concept.The CGI spin-off of the blockbuster franchise was introduced by producer Rajamouli at the event. Taking to the big stage, he shared that he had high hopes for the film after previous animated entries in the franchise failed to recreate the impact of the original live-action films.“We found moderate successes but never the kind of impact that the Baahubali franchise has made. Then one day, one more crazy guy comes along, Ishan Shukla, and he gives us an idea of what happens to Baahubali after his death, and he goes into the 14 realms of Indian mythology,” he said to fans and the media.Directed by Shukla, ‘Baahubali: The Eternal War’ follows Baahubali into the afterlife, where he becomes embroiled in an eternal battle across the 14 realms between the Devas and Asuras.Speaking to Deadline after the presentation, Shukla revealed that the idea stemmed from his own spiritual journey at a monastery in Gujarat. “I spent around four years in a monastery in India, from when I was around 30 to 35,” he said. “There was a huge painting, a mural in the temple of the 14 worlds. That idea stuck with me for a long time.”Shukla said producer Shobu Yarlagadda approached him after watching his animated feature ‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’ and said, “He could sense that I have a good grasp of scale and a lot of characters. He said maybe we should try something together. He was looking for the next Baahubali, but something super unique. That’s how it started.”The filmmaker admitted he was initially hesitant to take on the project as he is known for his ‘super psychedelic’ work, but added that the connective thread was the ‘world-building’.Sharing the biggest creative challenges while taking on the project, Shukla said, it was turning Prabhas‘s iconic portrayal of Baahubali into animation. “It was a really long process because we wanted to stylise him… if we try too hard to make it look like actual Prabhas, it starts to look like a video game character,” he explained.“So there was a sweet spot that we had to hit in which we are very, very religious to the style of this movie, but we are also religious to Prabhas fans. And Prabhas fans are, you know, they’ll kill you. So we had to be very much on point that it looks like Prabhas, that it’s believable. We went through a lot of iterations, which was kind of painful for him.”Paris-based animation director Antoine Charreyron, who worked on the character designs alongside Florent Auguy and Dorian Marchesin under the Alcyde banner, said the mythology proved far more complex and that they initially expected it to be like ‘The Lord of the Rings’. “We thought this is easy. It’s The Lord of the Rings. The Devas and Asuras are the elves and trolls. That was a mistake, it’s deeper than that. There are the 14 realms, lots of details… and every detail means something. So that’s really interesting.”CGI supervisor Simon Brown, who joined the production in January, confirmed that work is now progressing at full scale. “We’re deep into production. We’re building hundreds of characters, creatures, animals, props, vehicles, creating 38 environments across multiple realms.”Shukla added that the film is currently targeting completion in the second half of 2027, with plans to return to Annecy next year to showcase additional footage from the project.
