SS Rajamouli and the team behind ‘Baahubali: The Eternal War’ offered new insights into the ambitious animated spinoff at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Joining Rajamouli was director Ishaan Shukla, who talked about the film, getting the animation right and also shared the inspiration behind the central concept.Rajamouli, the producer of the CGI spin-off of the blockbuster franchise, introduced the event. Taking to the big stage, he shared that he had high hopes for the film after previous animated entries in the franchise failed to recreate the impact of the original live-action films.“We had moderate success but never that kind of impact Bahubali Created the franchise. Then one day, another madman comes, Ishaan Shukla, and he gives us an idea of what will happen to Baahubali after his death and he goes into 14 cases of Indian mythology,” he told fans and the media.Directed by Shukla, ‘Baahubali: The Eternal War’ follows Baahubali in the afterlife, where he is embroiled in an eternal war between gods and demons across 14 kingdoms.Speaking to Deadline after the presentation, Shukla revealed that the idea stemmed from his own spiritual journey at a monastery in Gujarat. “I spent about four years in a monastery in India from the age of about 30 to 35,” he said. “There was a huge painting, a mural in the Temple of the 14 Worlds. That idea stuck with me for a long time.”Shukla said that producer Shobu Yarlagadda approached her after watching her animated feature ‘Shirkoa: In Lies We Trust’ and said, “He realized that I have a good sense of scale and a lot of characters. He said maybe we should try something together. He was looking for the next Baahubali, but something extraordinary. That’s how it started.”The filmmaker admitted that he was initially hesitant to take on the project as he is known for his ‘super psychedelic’ work, but added that the connecting thread was ‘world-building’.Sharing the biggest creative challenges while taking on the project, Shukla said, it was turning PrabhasIconic portrayal of Baahubali in animation. “It was a really long process because we wanted to stylize him… If we try too hard to make it look like the real Prabhas, it starts looking like a video game character,” he explained.“So there was a sweet spot that we had to hit in which we were very, very loyal to the style of this movie, but we were also loyal to Prabhas’ fans. And Prabhas’ fans, you know, they’ll kill you. So we had to be so much that it looked like Prabhas, it was believable. We went through a lot of iterations for him, which was very difficult for him.”Paris-based animation director Antoine Chariron, who worked on the character designs with Florent Agui and Dorian Marchesin at the Alcide banner, said the mythology turned out to be more complex and they initially expected it to be more like ‘The Lord of the Rings’. “We thought it was simple. It’s The Lord of the Rings. The gods and demons are elves and trolls. That was a mistake, it’s deeper than that. There are 14 kingdoms, lots of details… and every detail means something. So it’s really interesting.”CGI supervisor Simon Brown, who joined the production in January, confirmed that work is now progressing at full scale. “We’re deep into production. We’re creating hundreds of characters, creatures, animals, props, vehicles, 38 environments across multiple regions.”Shukla added that the film is currently targeted for completion in the second half of 2027, with plans to return to Annecy next year to screen additional footage from the project.
