Director S.S. Rajamouli has been catapulted to the global stage with the worldwide success of RRR, earning international acclaim and considerable demand in his home country. It’s definitely no small task for a non-Hollywood filmmaker to craft a global cinematic phenomenon. After all, RRR has earned multiple award nominations outside its home country, and set new streaming records on Netflix.
But Rajamouli's success isn’t a mystery either. Following the nationwide success of his 2015 superhit Baahubali: The Beginning, stories about his dedication to the craft quickly became common knowledge among Indian fans. Rajamouli’s cinematic philosophy is to focus on grand, singular emotions and to carve them out to perfection. In order to achieve this, he is willing to go to great lengths, as has been attested by his crew members. The director is known to be extremely meticulous with his demands, and pursues his vision with a relentless persistence.
A dive into his filmography gives an interesting look at how his unique style and vision developed over time. Here are the best S.S. Rajamouli movies, ranked.
8 Maryada Ramanna (2010)
Maryada Ramanna was Rajamouli’s tribute to the greats. The movie is an adaptation of the 1923 movie Our Hospitality by the film pioneer, Buster Keaton. Rajamouli felt the desire to retell the story in his own way after being deeply impressed by it. In an unusual move, he cast Indukuri Sunil Varma in the lead role, an actor who almost exclusively plays the comedic foil, a very common South Indian character trope. The movie became one of the highest-grossing Telegu films of that year, and was later remade into the Bollywood film Son of Sardaar.
7 Simhadri (2003)
Simhadri was the second-ever movie made by Rajamouli, and featured RRR actor N.T. Rama Rao Jr. in the lead role. The movie told the story of a righteous orphan boy who grows up to become a secret vigilante. While it doesn’t immediately stand out from the action movies of its time, it demonstrates many of the cinematic philosophies that later contributed to the success of RRR, including overt mythological parallels, as well as a clear and effective appeal to grand emotions.
6 Yamadonga (2007)
Yamadonga falls under a highly niche genre of Indian films that are seen quite rarely these days. Starring NTR Jr. again, the movie follows his character, Raja, as a conman who goes to hell for his misdeeds. Upon arriving to the underworld, he proves too smart even for the god of death, Yama, and proceeds to cause havoc to his dominion. At one point, he even steals the god’s power from him. The movie shows NTR Jr. at his comedic best, and has a whole other romance-action story arc that ties into the plot.
5 Chatrapathi (2005)
Two years after the release of Simhadri, Rajamouli had already begun to demonstrate a more particular perspective when telling action stories. Chatrapathi was labeled as an unimaginative flick by some critics, but it clearly had something more to offer. The movie offered a rousing story of a community of Sri Lankan refugees who have been oppressed and exploited by local criminal groups for years. The righteous hero, played by Prabhas, eventually rises among the people to put a stop to it, and ends up becoming the region’s protector — the chatrapathi. The movie packs a clear angst and emotional punch, a quality that connected well with audiences and also reflected in the 10 nominations it received at the South Filmfare Awards.
4 Eega (2012)
The plot of Eega sounds fairly silly at a first glance: a murdered man reincarnates as a fly to take revenge on an evil, rich pervert in order to protect his girlfriend. Rajamouli managed to successfully navigate the visual effects challenges of this movie to earn accolades both in India and on the international stage. Besides a number of domestic awards, Eega also won the Most Original Film award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The movie also featured an early iteration of the pan-India formula, being filmed simultaneously in two languages: Telugu and Tamil.
3 Magadheera (2009)
Years before the landmark successes of RRR and Baahubali, Rajamouli had already been at the center of another cinematic phenomenon. Magadheera was an early experimentation with the period fantasy genre, a sweeping tale of love and reincarnation that was built upon an elaborate fantasy universe. It is one of the most important Telugu movies of the 2000s, breaking the language barrier to earn renown across all of India. The movie was also a breakout hit for Ram Charan, who would go on to star in RRR opposite NTR Jr.
2 Baahubali (2015 & 2017)
The Baahubali movies singlehandedly launched the pan-India cinema movement with its unprecedented success, breaking through the glass ceiling of regional Indian cinema to set major national records. They were built on a scope that was never before seen in Indian filmmaking, telling the story of a majestic ancient kingdom where two equally talented princes are in the running to be the next king. The first part of the Baahubali movies ended on a cliffhanger that effectively became a meme, keeping the hype alive and well until the second part set even bigger records, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of all time. Baahubali 2 also won the Saturn Award for Best International Film, an achievement that might have set the stage for the global success of RRR.
1 RRR (2022)
The latest and biggest success in Rajamouli’s filmography, RRR has become a household name everywhere in the world. Outside its grand spectacle, RRR is technically a work of historical fiction, imagining a scenario where two real-life Indian revolutionaries from different parts of the country not only met but also became best friends, fighting the British colonial rule together. Currently, the movie is in the running for a long list of awards in the west, including two Golden Globes awards.