Baahubali: Crown of Blood animation series is another attempt on the lines of international superhero films which, after becoming brands unto themselves, have spinoffs in the form of series, graphic novels and more. Directed by Jeevan J Kang and Naveen John, the series that streams on Disney+ Hotstar is a prequel to director SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali movies. The mammoth success of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and its sequel Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) played a significant role in blurring regional and language barriers and paving the way for more films, including the KGF chapters, Pushpa and Rajamouli’s own RRR, to aim bigger.
Coming nine years after the first Baahubali film, Crown of Blood leverages the popularity of the characters and is created by Rajamouli and Sharad Devarajan, who is also one of the writers of the series along with Sarwat Chadda, Jeevan J Kang and Shivangi Singh. On the heels of the Baahubali films, we have also had writer Anand Neelakantan’s trilogy book series Baahubali: Before the Beginning exploring the life of Sivagami before she became the queen mother of the Mahishmati kingdom. An adaptation of this into a digital series was in the works but called off at a later stage. Rajamouli and Sharad Devarajan are also credited as creators for the 2017 series Baahubali: The Lost Legends.
Baahubali: Crown of Blood delves into events that happened before the film, in which Baahubali and Bhallaladeva come together to fight an enemy and in the process, discover dark secrets. The Hindi series unfolds in nine episodes, with the first being nearly 30 minutes long and the rest, 19 to 22 minutes. The Hindi version benefits from the voices of actors who had also lent their voices to the characters in the films — Sharad Kelkar for Baahubali, Samay Thakkar for Kattappa, Mausam for Sivagami and Manoj Pandey for Bhalladeva. The series has also been dubbed in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Tamil; the Telugu version (two episodes of which were screened for the media in Hyderabad) would have benefitted hugely had the makers roped in Prabhas and Rana Daggubati to lend their voices for Baahubali and Bhallaladeva, to maximise the connect the audience continue to have with the characters.
