Contributed By CAPDT Admin Srujan Malladi
Baahubali has become a very common household name and now it’s so common that the word itself tends to break some grammar rules, it’s now a noun AND a verb… IFYKWIM.
Everyone in the Telugu land has already hopped on the hype train for part 1 but there has been A LOT of BUZZ for Baahubali after it released (Mainstream Bollywood & English YouTube channels). In fact, this movie has put Indian Cinema on the international radar. Many epic movies from different languages were brought into the limelight again as many content creators made reviewing Indian Cinema a part of their routine. It’s been almost 2 years since all of this started, but now it’s time to re-live the hype of Baahubali, thanks to “The Conclusion”.
Now that we only have 2 days remaining for Baahubali’s epic trailer drop, this article attempts to break down few underdog scenes from Baahubali – The Beginning which may actually have an impact on Baahubali – The Conclusion. We already wrote an article about all the things that we are waiting to watch when Baahubali - The Conclusion comes out. This article will try to highlight all the clues that the makers of this epic film have left for us in plain sight.
We would discuss those scenes in the chronological order of their appearance during the movie’s run time. This is a list of scenes which I think may tie into ‘The Conclusion’, a list which was prepared from multiple viewings (473 to be exact) of Baahubali – The Beginning.
1. Sivagami’s Attire: Just observe Sivagami’s costume in this very first scene, idhi gurthu pettukondi kindha 5th point deggara discuss cheddaam....(Note: Image exposure levels have been tweaked in Photoshop to improve visibility)
2. Climax of ‘The Conclusion’: One word – Foreshadowing. We may still not know why Kattappa killed Baahubali, but I think it’s safe to say that we know what happens after the climax fight between Mahendra Baahubali & Bhalladeva. It would be shot for shot as described by Devasena, you know the usual Maahishmathi routine, burning the bad guy alive in a pyre made by the hero’s mother, all this until Rajamouli decides to change things up, if yes, then we may have to wait until April 28th.
3. Hints in the Ruins: Now that we’ve all seen ‘The Beginning’ we can now make some sense of the making videos which were released way back in 2014, if you actually go take a look at them again, you will surely realize that almost 80% of the concept art has made its way into ‘The Beginning’. Why am I talking about concept art now? Well, take a look at the picture below…
That’s concept art coming to life… now this scene has no Easter eggs which tie into ‘The Conclusion’. However, they make up a strong case that concept art which was shown to us will somehow take its form in the movie… So now to the scenes that may contain an easter egg...
The concept art in the top left corner shows 2 people standing near a ruined statue of someone, now the actual snap from the movie is when the song “Nippule Swasaga” starts.... When Mahendra Baahubali enters Maahishmathi Kingdom we can actually see some ruined statues, were these erected by Amarendra Baahubali and then destroyed by Bhalla..? I do have a feeling that this fallen statue will be explained in Part-2, I also have a feeling that I’m speculating too much. We’ll find out soon which is which.
4. Prabhas Triple Role: Let’s not forget the fact that Mahendra Baahubali is the 3rd Generation heir to the throne of Maahishmathi kingdom, so let’s break down the family tree
Gen 1 – Vikrama Devudu Gen 2 – Amarendra Baahubali Gen 3 – Mahendra Baahubali
It’s very likely that the ‘sudden’ death of Raja Vikrama Deva will be explained in Part-2, well to be honest, I demand that his death be explained, for obvious reasons. I think that we may also have a small cameo from Vikrama Devudu. By the way, here’s a cute family pic of the 3 Generations.
5. Back to Sivagami’s Attire: Since we are discussing scenes as they appeared in the movie’s runtime, I had to pause the discussion until this scene, the iconic scene where Kattappa recognized Mahendra Baahubali, during that rain scene we actually have a ‘blink-and-miss’ flashback moment where presumably Kattappa is seeing Mahendra right after his birth. If you observe, it is Sivagami who is holding young Mahendra and she is wearing the same saree from the first scene, even Mahendra is seen wrapped in the same swaddling cloth. So it’s safe to say that when Kattappa first saw Mahendra was the last day of Sivagami's life.
Also, we can see her wearing the same saree in another shot from the post-credit scene of the beginning. If you look at the whole scene, which comes right after Kattappa back stabs Baahubali, it is pretty evident that Sivagami is looking at the dead body of Amarendra Baahubali.
So if you add all of that, you can easily derive that, the death of Amarendra Baahubali, the death of Sivagami and saving Mahendra Baahubali all of that happened rapidly, in less than 48 hours. Sivagami seems fine in the post credit scene, she’s only in shock due to the death of Amarendra, however in the opening scene of ‘The Beginning’ she is badly hurt, now what consequences led to this drastic shift would be very interesting to find out on the silver screen.
6. Kattapa’s Sorrow: In the entire Baahubali saga, Kattappa is the only guy who has good intentions but still ends up doing the dirty work for the bad guys. That right there can have a lot of interesting character moments. So if we go back to the flashback scene where Kattappa sees Mahendra Baahubali for the first time, or he puts Mahendra’s leg on his head for the first time, we can see that he already has blood on his hands and also some injuries on his head.
So now, if we take a look at his shot from the post-credit scene, he has the same exact injuries on the same exact places. So this might mean that he might have helped Sivagami escape with Mahendra Baahubali. Now it’s more likely that he had to make a choice between helping Sivagami and preventing Devasena from being captured (Because Amarendra is not alive anymore), and looks like he chose the former.
So here’s how I think these events unfolded:
i) Kattappa back stabs Amarendra ii) Kattappa returns to the palace only to find out that Mahendra Baahubali is also under threat. iii) Devasena is on the brink of being captured and enslaved. iv) Kattappa makes the hard choice and helps Sivagami with her escape and it’s highly probable that he may have told Sivagami about the secret path which leads to Ambula Gramam.
If you’ve understood Bhalladeva’s character then you can easily see his shadow over all of these events. In fact, I can even hear Bijjaladeva’s evil laugh in my mind when I think about these events.If you really think about it, the movie has been edited in such a way that you can figure out where the plot is going by connecting the dots, but not too much is revealed so you can only hope that your guess is right!
7. Exploring Different Kingdoms: With a little help from Photoshop, I was able to piece together the map of Maahishmathi and the surrounding kingdoms, take a look.
Just before the song ‘Manohari’ the young princes clearly state that, they wouldn’t have had a chance to explore all the different kingdoms if Sakethudu didn’t steal their Kingdom’s Army secrets.
This is where the plot thickens. If Bhalla & Baahu were to arrive at Singapuram Dongala Kota, they would have to cross Kuntala Rajyam. And this is where I think majority of ‘The Conclusion’ would take place. Bhalla and Baahu meeting with the princess of Kuntala Rajyam and by extension, Devasena for the first time and the beginning of the love triangle which takes darker twists in the later part of the story.
Also, there is a lot of un-named territory in between Maahishmathi and KuntalaRajyam, and there can be many other kingdoms which maybe mentioned in ‘The Conclusion’
8. The stolen Army Secrets: Now that we’ve established that the search for the stolen Army secrets lead the Dynamic Duo to Kuntala Rajyam and possibly forming an alliance with Maahishmathi, let’s get to the part about the stolen secrets. Sakethudu is captured and Kattappa crushes his hand under a rock to get the truth out, and that is when it is revealed that the Army Secrets were sent to Kaalakeyas.
Now there is HUGE easter egg which almost everyone missed out on when they watched it, so let me help you out with this. Pay attention to that pigeon.
We can clearly see that Sakethudu sent out a messenger pigeon with the Army Secrets of Maahishmathi, but it’s never really shown who was the on the receiving end of this message. Now before you say that it was sent to Kaalakeya Prabhakar let me tell you this, if the army secrets were really sent to Kaalekaya Prabhakar, then why didn’t they use it to win the war. Secrets like those could give them an edge over Maahishmathi’s strategies. Nope, they never used those secrets in the war. You may argue that Amarendra used the hitherto unknown 'Trishula Vyuham' and managed to get the better of the Kalakeyas. There is another angle to the whole thing.
So who received the secrets from this pigeon? My best guess would be Kaalekaya’s Brothers. Yes the Kaalekaya King has not one but TWO brothers. To defend my case, I submit some evidence in the form of concept art.
This concept art has been taken from one of Firefly’s interview with some popular magazine when they were discussing about the VFX work done for Baahubali. Now as we discussed previously in the 3rd point, the concept art of Baahubali will somehow make its way onto the screen. Concentrate on the names of these characters.
Again, you may argue that we may have already seen Kaalakeya’s brothers who were standing beside him during the scene where they give Kaalakeyan Army one last chance to surrender before the war. I put forth another piece of concept art to further cement my point that we have only seen the different War chiefs and Army heads and not Kaalakeya’s brothers.
If you observe the character names you can clearly see what I’m trying to tell you. Army_Head_01 & Army_Head_02 and so on. Now why did the concept artists name the guys above as KK_Chief_Brother & and the guys below as KK_Army_Head. Well because OBVIOUSLY (probably) Kaalakeya Prabhakar has two brothers who are about to make an entry in ‘The Conclusion’.
Now we all know that Kaalakeya Chief (Prabhakar) was killed in the war and the Kaalakeyas didn’t use any war secrets to gain an edge over the battle. Now, why do I think the war secrets are with the Kaalakeya Brothers? Let’s take a look at the infamous backstabbing scene. If we ignore the fact that Kattappa is actually killing the boy he raised for a moment and concentrate on the foreground, we can derive a LOT of information. Again for better visibility, my friend Photoshop helped in increasing the exposure levels.
Now, what do you see? They are obviously in the midst of a fierce battle, and who are they battling? KAALAKEYAS..!! Just concentrate on their costumes, not Kattappa & Amarendra, the 3 other guys, they have a striking resemblance to the defeated Kaalakeya Army. Now we already had a spectacular war sequence in ‘The Beginning’ and Maahishmathi righteously defeated the Kaalakeya Army. But why are they battling them again? Maybe the younger brothers found out that elder brother was killed and they now wisely, use the newly found secrets (messenger pigeon) and maybe infiltrate Maahishmathi through some secret hidden passage or by breaking their war strategy because they already know it. All of this is more evidence to my point that Kaalakeya Prabhakar is not the only guy in-charge of the Kaalakeya army. We may actually see his brothers wreak havoc and that may somehow tie into the death of Amarendra Baahubali.
By far the messenger pigeon & the army secrets is the biggest Easter egg in ‘The Beginning’ and all I can do is present the evidence, you be the judge.
9. Bhalla is the King and not Baahu: I can very well recall the dialog from Sivagami “Baahubali oka shuba muhurthanna Maahishmathi Maharaju ga Pattabhishikthudu avthadu! Idhi naa maata! Naa maatey shaasanam...” I’m pretty sure that you were able to hear Ramya Krishna when you were reading that dialogue. That’s the impact Sivagami left on all of us. Now it was during this scene when Baahubali was announced as the heir to the throne of Maahishmathi. But… But… Let’s all take a quick recap to 2014, when the Birthday Wishes & Making videos were released. Let’s take a look at these pics below.
Take a moment, let that sink in, who is that sitting on the throne? Bhallaladeva and not Amarendra! If Sivagami’s will is THE LAW of Maahishmathi, then why is Bhallaladeva sitting on the throne? Since Kattappa killed Baahubali, it’s easy to assume that the next eligible person i.e., Bhallaladeva would have the throne. But NO, Amarendra is well and alive and even seen doing some next level sword slinging right in front of him.
So Bhallaladeva became king long before Amarendra died. How did that happen? Did Baahubali give up the throne for something else? Why do I have a feeling that Devasena would factor into this? Also, Bhalladeva is missing the scar on his face, he has no scar in any of the flashback scenes. So when and how did he get that scar? Did he get that scar during the war in which Amarendra was killed? We only have to wait for a month to find out and I’m growing restless.
10. Subbaraju’s Role: Like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Baahubali is the first movie on an Indian screen to give us a hint for the sequel in the form of post-credits scene, and it is in this scene that we get a full-fledged look of him in costume. Now my best guess would be that he is an important person (Minister) of Kuntala Rajyam or perhaps, Brother of Devasena. But what’s interesting is that, if they really wanted to give us a tease of his role, they could’ve picked any shot. But instead, they choose this one where he is surrounded by swords and also covered in blood (probably his own).
Now why did they choose to do that…??? Like I said before, we only have to wait for a month.
Bonus Easter egg: This is from the recently released 10 sec. teaser. Most of you might’ve figured this out by now, but for those who didn’t, let me help you out.
The teaser clearly shows blood dripping on the Sphatika Lingam in the foreground and Shivudu in the background. It’s the very same Sphatika Lingam which is in the palace courtyard. Now what does this mean, Shivudu is in the Palace for the second time and looks like the big fight is about to go DOWN..!!
Like when we discussed the 2nd point, foreshadowing, this maybe it. This might be the scene when Bhallaladeva is closer to his end, and I’m pretty sure Shivudu will use the same chains in which his Mom was enslaved to drag Bhalla and throw him into his pyre.
These are all the Easter eggs which I could spot in ‘The Beginning’, if you have some of your own please let me know in the comments below, and we can surely geek out by discussing them.
