Visual effects supervisor Srinivas Mohan breaks it down.
S. S. Rajamouli’s upcoming film Varanasi was recently announced with an epic announcement video. Rajamouli is of course behind the huge movies Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), and RRR (2022).
Varanasi is coming in 2027, and is described as a sci-fi film blending Hindu mythology with time travel. Visual effects supervisor Srinivas Mohan, who befores & afters talked to extensively on RRR, has provided us with a detailed description of how this mostly fully-CG announcement video was made.
Take a read below, and also, here’s the announcement video.
After RRR, I joined director S. S. Rajamouli’s team as VFX supervisor on his next film, Varanasi. Because this film is so visually driven, sir wanted the announcement itself to feel like an event—a three-minute visual experience that gives audiences a glimpse of the world, the tone, and the scale we’re aiming for.
We started work on the announcement video in October 2024, originally targeting a January 2025 launch event. Along with Indian studios, we brought in teams from around the world to help bring Rajamouli sir’s vision to life, including Mistyman Studios, Viskefi, Phantom FX, Gimpville, and Meta VFX.
We began with black-and-white animatics created by our in-house concept artist, blocking out the environments, camera language, and the presence of our hero, Mahesh Babu.
One of the core creative ideas was to present the world of Varanasi in extreme slow motion at 400 fps, instead of the usual 24 fps. Every element in the frame moves in slow motion, but the camera travels at real-time speed so that the audience can absorb the grandeur and the micro-details of each moment.
From a VFX standpoint, this was one of our biggest challenges—especially because, although almost every shot is fully CG, Rajamouli sir wanted a completely photorealistic feel, not a stylised look.
Except for the hero plate of Mahesh Babu sitting on the bull (shot on a motion- base rig against green screen), everything you see is CGI. Once we started building characters and environments at this level of realism and scale, we quickly realised what a “global film” expectation actually means. After RRR received worldwide recognition, including an Oscar win, the bar for Rajamouli sir’s next film naturally became much higher. With that in mind, we kept looking at every shot from a global cinema lens—frame by frame, detail by detail.
As we added assets and started animating, each review revealed new layers of work. Shots needed more texture detail, more FX nuance, more subtlety in lighting and motion to truly feel photoreal at 400 fps. Department HODs—across cinematography, production design, costumes and more—continuously contributed inputs so that every frame aligned with the film’s overall vision. Our 3D scenes became extremely heavy, FX simulation times multiplied, and render times shot up—individual frames often took more than 20 hours to render, with some shots crossing dozens of versions, touching the 90+ mark before everyone was satisfied.
What we initially estimated as a three-month sprint organically grew into almost a one-year journey to match Rajamouli sir’s expectations. During this period, principal photography had already begun, so many of our VFX reviews happened in the middle of shoot days, between schedules and locations. Through all of this, our producers stood by us with tremendous patience and support, and I’m genuinely grateful to them for believing in the process and in the team.
The final announcement video features 10 fully CGI shots and 3 CG bull shots with Mahesh Babu integrated from live-action plates. And there’s a small Easter egg for viewers: You can spot the hero in most of the shots—except three. Try zooming in and hunting for him.
Most importantly, I want to thank all the VFX artists and technicians across every studio who poured their craft into this piece. No AI was used in creating these visuals—every frame is built using traditional CGI workflows, artist-driven design, and countless hours of iteration.
This announcement is just the beginning. We have a long road ahead, and the team is fully committed to pushing the visual boundary even further as we move towards the film’s release, currently planned for summer 2027.
