Epic words: All you need to know about companion book trilogy of 'Baahubali'

It's been more than a year-and-a-half since the first part of SS Rajamouli's 'Bahubali: The Beginning' hit the theatres and audiences are still debating why loyal army chief Kattappa (Sathyaraj) kills Bahubali (Prabhas). The film made Rs525 crore, spawning almost an equal number of jokes, memes and SMSes on the question.

And now that the sequel is ready for release on April 28, audiences are eagerly awaiting an answer and would also clearly be interested in the back stories that drive characters in this epic fantasy?

For those interested in back stories of the 25 characters that celluloid cannot go into, there's Anand Neelakantan's first Indian trilogy of companion books to a movie. The Mumbaikar has authored three works of fiction based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata and is best known for his debut book 'Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished', 'The Story of Ravana and His People', which tells the story of the vanquished Asuras, cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3,000 years, and has sold over 2.5 lakh copies).

The first book in the Bahubali prequel trilogy traces the story of the Queen Mother Sivagami. "Her iconic place among the principal characters in the story has already established in the first installment of the film where Ramya Krishnan's portrayal had left audiences cheering her character. Sivagami's nobility of purpose and the graph of her character development has seen her strike a chord with audiences immediately. Obviously, when writing a prequel with 'The Rise of Sivagami: Book 1 of Bahubali - Before the Beginning' to the film's first installment, her role became the fulcrum for the narrative."

But we are getting ahead in a story which almost didn't happen. "Soon after his July, 2015 release of the 'Bahubali: The Beginning', I got a call from Rajamouli, asking me to pen the prequel to his National Award winning historical film. I was sketchy in my response. Even as he spoke, I wondered if the voice matched anyone I knew. I was convinced the person on the other end would suddenly start guffawing about having pranked me."

Quick to detect the "iffiness", Rajamouli sent Neelakantan flight tickets to come to Hyderabad for a meeting. It was only as the author sat across the filmmaker surrounded by over 2,000 pages of characterisation for the epic saga that it sank in and he agreed.

This time the filmmaker threw the 43-year-old author a googly. Rajamouli wanted to first test him. "He asked me to take two hours and write 20 scenes during the visit. When I accomplished the task he actually sat down to read and grade each scene on a scale of 1-10," says Neelakantan, who remembers being quite nervous.

"It was like being in school again," he laughs, brushing off suggestions of affront. "In fact, I was quite taken with how Rajamouli put his work and emotions in different baskets and was professional to the core about every single decision."

Thankfully, Neelakantan scored 7+ for 11of the 20 scenes penned and bagged the Bahubali trilogy deal. "Telugu, Hindi and Marathi translations of the English book which released on March 7 will coincide with the sequel's film release on April 28. The third title will end where the first movie begins, giving audiences a sense of the background to look at the film in perspective."

But this is just the preface of the tale to come.

Rajamouli told him that since he and his team were racing against time he would have a maximum of three months to finish the first book. But wasn't that far too little time? "I know," admits Neelakantan, "When Rajamouli said this was a challenge to myself as a writer I decided to plunge into it."

Yet, the obstacles were far from over. "I was also up to my ears writing for television with shows like 'Siya Ke Ram' (Star Plus), 'Chakravarthin Ashoka Samrat', 'Mahabali Hanuman' and 'Adaalat 2' (Sony) and it took me a while to wrap out and concentrate on this book."

He compares the trilogy with cricket. "All my work till now was like an easy-paced test match. But this has been more like T20," he laughs. "I was warned, any delay would derail the entire translation process as teams of various languages were waiting for me to finish writing."

He finished within the set deadline despite having to rewrite 80 percent of the book in early December. "Some close friends who praised the book said it was like the 'Lord of the Rings' as a compliment. Only, I wasn't taking it like that. Why should a film-book rooted in the Indian ethos have any foreign inspirations even from Tolkien or RR Martin? So I re-hauled the pretext, context and subtext of the book consciously Indianising all metaphors and reference points."

The added challenge was the fact that this is a completely fictional work with no reference points in mythology/history. "The storyboard had to be built from scratch with 40 new characters which will help weave the narrative of the wife of Bijjala Deva and sister-in-law to Amarendra (Bahubali's father) and queen mother, Sivagami Devi. The syntax and vocabulary draws a lot from Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit."

Those wanting to read about Bahubali himself are in for some disappointment though. "The story unfolds before his time. I know everybody thinks that the book will answer why Kattappa killed Bahubali. For that audiences will have to wait for 'Bahubali 2' to release. "My story gives you the seed idea of what must have bothered Kattappa."

This book is about the rise and rise of Sivagami, a 17-year-old orphan to the queen mother. "We are a civilisation that worshipped the feminine principle and lived by a matrilineal order at a time when the world treated women like slaves. That could have to do with the idea of making Sivagami, the (s)hero of my story, which has several sheroes and she-villians like Kamakshi (a conservative, principled woman), Ally (the spy woman) and Kalika (a conniving devdasi)."

According to him, these women characters have brought a lot of emotional depth to the story. "The hero who fights the evil is great for the silver screen. But how much can you write about wars, conquests and campaigns alone? My characters help root and contextualise the story, imbuing them with a slice-of-life feel."