Filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli picked a special day to drop a special surprise. On Saturday, July 18, which happens to be Priyanka Chopra’s birthday, he shared the first official pictures of her character from his upcoming film Varanasi, and the internet has been buzzing ever since.
Chopra plays a character called Mandakini and Rajamouli introduced her with a short line that fans are already quoting everywhere: “Grace when she smiles. Fire when she doesn’t.” Two pictures came with that caption. In the first, she’s dressed in a black corset-style outfit, hair pulled into a messy high bun, standing against a warm amber background with a sharp, intense look on her face. The second picture is a complete change of mood — she’s in a white crop top with black cargo pants and a beige jacket slung over her shoulders, caught mid-air in a joyful jump. Together, the two images seem designed to show both sides of Mandakini in one go: soft and steady one moment, fierce the next.
This is Chopra’s first project with Rajamouli, and it also marks a proper return to Indian cinema after years spent mostly on Hollywood projects and shows. She joins Mahesh Babu, who plays a warrior named Rudhra, and Prithviraj Sukumaran, who takes on the role of the film’s antagonist, Kumbha, a wheelchair-using villain. Exactly how Mandakini fits into their story hasn’t been revealed, and Rajamouli seems to be keeping that mystery intact on purpose.
Varanasi wasn’t always called Varanasi. The project was known by the working title GlobeTrotter for a long time before the real name was unveiled at a massive fan event at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. The story is said to stretch across thousands of years, touching different eras and locations, with Rajamouli mentioning that one segment draws inspiration from a chapter of the Ramayana. Composer M.M. Keeravani, who won an Oscar for “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, is back scoring the music, which alone has fans expecting something big on the sound side.
Budget numbers floating around put the film somewhere between ₹1,000 crore and ₹1,300 crore, making it one of the most expensive Indian productions ever attempted. It’s being shot for both regular theatres and IMAX screens, continuing the scale Rajamouli built with Baahubali and RRR.
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