Famed filmmaker SS Rajamouli has officially unveiled the title of his highly-anticipated fantasy adventure film, now confirmed as Varanasi. The movie, which stars Mahesh Babu alongside Priyanka Chopra and Prithviraj Sukumaran, promises an epic scope, with the director revealing that a significant portion of the storyline is drawn from the classic Indian epic, the Ramayana.

Speaking at a grand title-reveal event at Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City, Rajamouli shared his personal excitement about integrating mythological elements into his work. Though adapting the Mahabharata remains his dream project, the director noted that he never expected to film a crucial Ramayana-inspired episode so soon. He described the writing process as feeling “like I was floating,” underscoring the spiritual connection he felt to the source material.

A highlight of the event was Rajamouli’s praise for lead actor Mahesh Babu’s embodiment of his character in the Ramayana-themed sequence. The director confessed that seeing Mahesh Babu in the attire of Lord Rama during a pre-shoot look test gave him “goosebumps.” He reflected on the actor’s unique presence, saying that Mahesh possesses “the charm of Krishna, but the calmness of Rama.” Rajamouli was so captivated he initially set the photo as his device wallpaper, before removing it.

The massive sequence, which took 60 days to shoot, recently concluded filming. Rajamouli detailed the difficulty of the production, likening the effort required for this single portion to creating an entire feature film, given the level of planning and reimagining involved. He anticipates this sequence will be one of the film’s most memorable elements.

The event also addressed a recent issue concerning the unauthorized circulation of the film’s content. Rajamouli condemned the leak of the Varanasi teaser, explaining that the footage was captured by an aerial drone during a test run for the grand title reveal’s massive LED setup. He lamented that a year of dedicated work and substantial financial investment by hundreds of people was compromised due to the unexpected drone interference.

Varanasi, which was previously operating under the working title Globetrotter, is set to be Rajamouli’s next ambitious project following the global success of Baahubali and RRR.