How do you surpass the success of the Baahubali franchise? If you’re SS Rajamouli, you strip down the films to find the cause of the success — in this case, the larger-than-life experience hitherto almost unseen in Indian cinema. “I wouldn’t start a film unless I am sure I have that kind of experience to offer,” begins the director, counted among the most imaginative Indian storytellers today.

With RRR, Rajamouli has moved from fantasy to a chapter of Indian history, as he tells the story of revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. The genre has changed, as has the cast. But his signature extravagance remains. “I can’t look at stories in any other way. Only larger-than-life stories excite and engulf me. My characters might have abilities [of a superhero], but the audience connects to the real emotions. The reason the Ramayana and Mahabharat resonate with us is not because of the [characters’] superpowers, but because of human emotions,” explains the director, who is known to pen his stories by hand. “My stories are entirely handwritten. No one can read my scrawly writing. But everything you see on the screen is on that paper.”