RRR’s Director and Cinematographer
on Shoot, Post, Visual Effects and More

By Iain Blair

RRR is an Indian superhero movie and an international hit, thanks to its story, visual effects, and blend of emotion and action. The film (whose title stands for Rise, Roar, Revolt) tells the “true” story of two guerrilla fighters who took on the British Raj in the 1920s. It features a literal cast of thousands and a huge army of post and VFX teams behind the scenes.

RRR was directed and co-written by S.S. Rajamouli and shot by his longtime cinematographer, KK Senthil Kumar. The collaboration between the director and cinematographer goes back two decades.

I spoke with both of them about making this ambitious feature film, which is getting its fair share of Oscar buzz, the challenges of the shoot, and the project's workflow.

Can you talk about integrating post and the large amount of VFX?
S.S. Rajamouli: We began right at the start of prep. The big challenge on this was the huge volume of things — the sheer number of people involved in all departments, the huge amount of VFX shots, all the data and so on. It was easy to get lost in all that and lose sight of what we were trying to do in terms of the story and characters.

Senthil, how long was prep?
K.K. Senthil Kumar: It took about a year, and we did a lot of camera tests and lens tests. This is one of the biggest films ever made in India, and I wanted to capture that epic quality and make it a really immersive experience for the audience. ARRI had just come out with the new Alexa LF, and it was perfect for us. This was the very first Indian film to be shot on large format.

A. Sreekar Prasad cut this. What were the main editing challenges?
Rajamouli: We had assistants, but he was the only editor. The main editing he did was not on the film so much but on the script. I gave him the script before we began shooting, and he had a lot of suggestions and ideas that were very helpful. We talked a lot about shots, how long they should be and so on, but more than that, we focused on the characters and their development. Then the moment I start shooting, I start editing.

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