Prabhas

Watch Prabhas guide Anushka Shetty’s Devasena through firing three arrows at once in Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion (2017). The feat is absurd, but the attention he gives her makes the scene intimate. Shetty has an equal part in the exchange, keeping it from becoming another demonstration of the hero’s capabilities. We were unexpectedly moved by their care for one another amid such unlikely action. His conviction makes the extravagance work, while his ease with Shetty gives us a reason to care.

His breakthrough in Telugu cinema came with Varsham (2004), well before Mirchi (2013) and the turn towards Bāhubali. He devoted five years to the duology, which began with Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), working with director S. S. Rajamouli on films that demanded sustained physical commitment. Afterwards came multilingual productions aimed at audiences beyond Telugu cinema, including Saaho (2019) and Kalki 2898 AD (2024).

In Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion, he plays both Mahendra ‘Sivudu’ Bāhubali and Amarendra Bāhubali with the seriousness the fantasy needs. Rajamouli is a useful director for him because the action can carry feeling without stopping for a speech. The reservation is that the screenplay keeps restating emotions once we have understood them, and the length makes that repetition harder to forgive. Prabhas and Shetty are easier company when the film allows their exchanges to proceed without quite so much insistence. We recommend it warmly, though its relentless emphasis can wear us down.

Films such as Radhe Shyam (2022) and Adipurush (2023) have drawn criticism for weak scripts and relying too heavily on scale. Those complaints do not settle the question of his acting, but they are a reason to be wary of treating physical commitment as enough. We would welcome another film that gives him as much to do with a fellow actor as Rajamouli gives him with Shetty.