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‘The Only Thing Was That It Had to Be Believable’: Designing the World of Baahubali

Production designer Sabu Cyril describes how Baahubali balanced creative freedom with believability, from Mahishmati’s architectural references to handmade props and waterfall sets.
Opened Runtime3 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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For Baahubali, production designer Sabu Cyril had room to invent a kingdom from scratch—but not to make it feel arbitrary. In a 2015 interview with Scroll.in, he described the central constraint this way: “This was a fictional subject, so we had the liberty. We didn’t get into any specifics since we designed everything for the film. I took this to be an advantage, and the only thing was that it needed to be believable.”

How Mahishmati drew on real architecture without copying a real kingdom

The kingdom of Mahishmati was fictional, and the film’s design brief was framed around a proposed period of roughly 500 BC. That was a creative starting point, not a claim that the film reconstructs a historically attested place or society. Cyril said the team wanted the world to feel coherent and convincing while avoiding a direct imitation of any one existing kingdom.

For visual reference, the designers looked to Ajanta, Ellora and Mahabalipuram, as well as the imposing scale of Greek and Roman structures. Cyril also noted that the Tanjore temple had colors similar to the palette used for the film. The result, as described in the interview, combined a warm, muddy color scheme with granite forms and metal inlay.

How the sets and waterfall were made

The production’s scale was first conveyed to Cyril through a Photoshopped image of a waterfall, according to his account. Turning that image into a workable film environment meant combining a real location with constructed sections rather than relying on one approach throughout.

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Cyril said the crew filmed a real waterfall in Kerala and recreated eight portions at Ramoji Film City. Fiber was used to simulate rock, and water was recycled during the shoot. Describing the footage, he said, “98 feet is real.” That figure refers to the waterfall footage as discussed in the interview; the article does not establish it as an independently measured production specification.

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Handmade props, armor and set pieces

Cyril emphasized the amount of fabrication involved, saying, “Everything was hand-made.” The Scroll.in interview reports that six to seven concept artists worked on the project and that about 200 people were working on various sets at a time. Those are figures reported in the 2015 article, not a separate production audit.

Among the objects described were swords, armor, the throne and large set pieces. Cyril said, “We made close to 10,000 swords,” which the article says were handmade and stored in a separate room. It also reports that artificial flowers worth Rs 60 lakhs were imported from China and that a Kali statue built for a war sequence stood 28 feet high. Each figure reflects the interview’s account of the production.

Design details also helped distinguish characters. Cyril said the throne’s metal inlay was intended to emphasize solidity. Prabhas’s helmet used flowing lines, while Rana Daggubati’s headgear had sharp, spiky edges—a contrast meant to reflect their different personalities.

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Why believability mattered more than historical reconstruction

The interview’s account points to a practical distinction: the design drew on recognizable architectural and material references, but the team was not trying to reproduce a particular historical kingdom. The fictional setting allowed invention; visual consistency, tactile detail and the blending of real locations with constructed environments helped make that invention credible on screen.

Cyril also credited collaboration, saying, “Nothing can be achieved without team work.” His comments in the 2015 interview describe the design approach and reported fabrication details at that time; they should be read as an account of the film’s production, not as an independently verified inventory.

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