Bhallaladeva is a fictional character and recurring

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.Baahubali franchise'', and the main antagonist of the movie series. The character was created by

V. Vijayendra Prasad Koduri Viswa Vijayendra Prasad (born 27 May 1942) is an Indian screenwriter and film director who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. With a career spanning across nearly three decades, his filmography consists of over 25 films as a screenwrit ...

and

S. S. Rajamouli Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli ( ; born 10 October 1973) is an Indian filmmaker who works in Telugu cinema. Known for his epic, action and fantasy genre films, he is the highest grossing Indian director of all time, as well as the highest-paid d ...

and was portrayed by

Rana Daggubati Ramanaidu Daggubati, (; born 14 December 1984) known professionally as Rana Daggubati, is an Indian actor, film producer, and entrepreneur who primarily works in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil and Hindi cinema, Hindi films. H ...

in the films '' Baahubali: The Beginning'' and '' Baahubali: The Conclusion'', which were directed by Rajamouli. The director of the Baahubali franchise,

, openly confessed to the public in the Audio Launch event that he considers Bhallaladeva to be even more powerful compared to the main protagonists of the Baahubali franchise, Amarendra Baahubali and Mahendra Baahubali.

Fictional biography

Early life

Bhallaladeva is the son of Bijjaladeva and '' Rajamatha'' Sivagami Devi. He is raised by Sivagami along with his cousin Amarendra Baahubali, who is also his adoptive brother. He is a great warrior and is as equally skilled as his adoptive brother, though the director of the Baahubali franchise,

, later openly confessed to the public in the Audio Launch event that he considers Bhallaladeva to be even more powerful compared to the main protagonists of the Baahubali franchise, Amarendra Baahubali and Mahendra Baahubali. However, he is not empathetic towards his subjects like Amarendra and has a ruthless personality. He is a traitorous prince and jealous of his adoptive brother's popularity. He is often misguided by his father Bijjaladeva to take evil steps.

Rivalry with Amarendra

Bhallaladeva shared a long rivalry with his adoptive brother Amarendra Baahubali, whom he was heavily jealous of him. Since in his mind, being powerful and overruling his subjects was his only priority while Baahubali sought equality and harmony among all of the kingdom's citizenship. Left out of the people and his mother's attention, he framed Baahubali for his assassination after he becomes king maker, and later Kattappa kill him.

Reign as King

Bhallaladeva manipulated his mother into hating Baahubali, who renounced the throne to stay married to Devasena. Bhallaladeva becomes king. After he tricks his mother into ordering Baahubali's execution, he rules with an iron fist and oppresses his subjects as well as the entire region for 25 years. He destroys Kuntala completely, leading to the creation of the rebel alliance that intended to bring him down. After torturing Devasena for 25 years, his nephew Mahendra rescues her and ends his rule. Bhallaladeva is thrown onto the funeral pyre that Devasena prepared to burn him alive to death on, by Baahubali who used the same chains that Bhallaladeva used to chain Devasena. Devasena then lights the funeral pyre with him alive on it. The fire engulfs his entire body, and he burns alive to death. He screams with pain, and dies his horrific but deserved death by burning to ashes.

Reception

Bhallaladeva was a great warrior and had a strong desire for power. He was always ready to kill to ascend the throne of Mahishmati and lacked compassion, a trait which Amarendra Baahubali had in abundance. While the character of Bhallaladeva seemed to have the potential to be a good king, in the sequel, his desire for power makes him evil and he begins to do hideous things to accomplish his goal which makes him lose his sanity eventually and he transforms into a hateful character. Despite being the king, he feels like he has nothing. Baahubali was a good man and he died as one, while Bhallaladeva did not have the virtue of greatness from the beginning. His actions were guided by basic human emotions such as jealousy, envy, desire and loneliness. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' considers him as the most interesting character of the film even more than Baahubali and Devasena, and calls him "the only character that achieves such a huge transformation through the course of the film". Arkadev Ghoshal of IB Times considers him to be a sadist. ''Bollywood Life'' considered him to be the smartest character of '' Baahubali: The Conclusion''.

SS Rajamouli Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli ( ; born 10 October 1973) is an Indian filmmaker who works in Telugu cinema. Known for his epic, action and fantasy genre films, he is the highest grossing Indian director of all time, as well as the highest-paid d ...

revealed that Bhallaladeva's son Bhadrudu was adopted, while Rana Daggubati jokingly said that he is a surrogate child. Another reviewer credited the female characters over Bhallaladeva.

Development

Characterization

The character of Bhallaladeva is inspired from

Ravana According to the Mahakavya, Hindu epic, ''Ramayana'', Ravana was a kingJustin W. Henry, ''Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below'', Oxford University Press, p.3 of the island of Lanka, in which he is the chief antag ...

of ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

'' and

Duryodhana Duryodhana (, Help:IPA/Sanskrit, ̪ʊɾjoːd̪ʱən̪ᵊ ), also known as Suyodhana, is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata.'' He is the eldest of the Kaurava, Kauravas, the hundred sons of King Dhritarashtra and Queen Gan ...

of ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

''. Just like Ravana kidnapped ''

Sita Sita (; ), also known as Siya, Jānaki and Maithili, is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Sita is the consort of Rama, the avatar of god Vishnu, and is regarded as an avatar of goddess Lakshmi. She is t ...

,'' he also captured Devasena and kept her for 25 years. Bhallaladeva's feeling of having his right denied before birth and his father is denied the right to the throne due to his disability is contrasted with the denial of the throne to Duryodhana's father Dhritarashtra due to his blindness and his feelings about the matter.

Notable works done by Bhallaladeva

*Bhallaladeva killed his enemy king Inkoshi of the Kalakeyas; tried to kill Mahendra Baahubali; imprisoned Devasena for 25 years and was involved in the murder of Amarendra Baahubali and Sivagami. *In the battle against Kalkeyas, he killed thousands of soldiers, the main

war elephant A war elephant is an elephant that is Animal training, trained and guided by humans for combat purposes. Historically, the war elephant's main use was to charge (warfare), charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elep ...

with a single shot on its armored

forehead In human anatomy, the forehead is an area of the head bounded by three features, two of the skull and one of the scalp. The top of the forehead is marked by the hairline, the edge of the area where hair on the scalp grows. The bottom of the fo ...

, on which the king Inkoshi of Kalakeyas battles, the king Inkoshi of Kalakeyas (already wounded by Amarendra Baahubali), and even a few of his kingdom's own innocent subjects imprisoned by Kalkeyas. *Defeats and kills a raging and charging giant muscular Indian gaur with bare hands. *He catches a fast-moving arrow shot at him from behind by Mahendra Baahubali, using his right hand. *He had tried to kill Baahubali many times even before the Kalkeya War and risking his kingdom by it as well. *He destroyed the whole Kuntaladesha only due to his anger on Devasena. *A 90 metre tall gold statue of Bhallaladeva was built after completion of his 25 years as the king which was later destroyed during his battle with Mahendra Bahubali. Later its broken head was dumped in the river. *He used a scythed chariot drawn by a pair of horses in the Kalakeya War. It was destroyed by the Kalakeya chief. In his battle with Mahendra Baahubali he had a much more powerful chariot drawn by two

Gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ) is a large bovine native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 ...

bisons with three spinning scythes and a mechanism to shoot multiple arrows simultaneously at small intervals. It was destroyed by Mahendra. *He carries a unique mace ( Gada) whose head be detached to be elongated through a chain inside it and looks same as that of

Ball and chain A ball and chain (also known as leg irons) is a physical restraint device historically used to bind prisoners of both adolescent and adult ages. Their use was prevalent in the Americas.Charles N.Pede, "DISCIPLINE Rather Than JUSTICE: Courts-Mar ...

. Mahendra smashed it while fighting Bhallaladeva.

Transformation

was inspired by

Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English actor. Often described as one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Daniel Day-Lewis, numerous a ...

to play the character of Bhallaladeva. He had a lot of workout sessions for transforming into the character. Reports say that he worked for more than two hours a day for weight training and cardio. The older Bhallaldeva is heavier and weighed around 110 kg for those portions of both the films while his younger version is 8 kg lighter. He learned martial arts for the film. He ate every two and half hours as a part of his diet and avoided oil, while eating food rich in carbohydrates and proteins. Even

Prabhas Uppalapati Venkata Suryanarayana Prabhas Raju (; born 23 October 1979), known mononymously as Prabhas, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. One of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema, he is known as Rebel Star in ...

had to eat about 40 boiled eggs daily to increase his weight to 150 kg. They both went through very tough workouts including 500 push ups a day.

Legacy and impact

, the actor who played Bhallaladeva, was paid a high amount for his role parallel to that of Baahubali, which was played by

, but he charged Rs 15 crore, less than the Rs 25 crore paid to Prabhas for the franchise. He described Baahubali as "career-defining" for him as the film industry will trust and support his vision. He further said that the film's success allowed him to gain more opportunities. He said he learned a lot working with the team of Baahubali. Owing to the similarities between the

Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...

and the character Bhallaladeva,

is also called the Tollywood

References

External links

Bhallaladeva
on

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

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