The long-standing debate around whether Hrithik Roshan was ever approached to play Baahubali has finally been put to rest. Producer Shobu Yarlagadda, in a recent interview with Gulte, revealed that there was never any truth to those speculations. He stated that from the very beginning, the role was written specifically for Prabhas and no other actor was ever in consideration.
“There’s one more thing that I’ll only bring up because I see all this online chatter that we asked Hrithik and all that for Prabhas’ role in Baahubali. That never happened; from Day 1 it was Prabhas,” Yarlagadda clarified, addressing years of fan discussions surrounding the casting.
The clarification comes as a surprise to many who believed that Hrithik Roshan was once in talks for the franchise.
Interestingly, Baahubali director SS Rajamouli has spoken about Hrithik before, recalling a controversial comment he made in 2009 during the promotion of Meher Ramesh’s Billa. Rajamouli had then compared Prabhas and Hrithik, saying the Telugu star outshone the Bollywood actor.
Years later, Rajamouli admitted that his words could have been phrased better, stressing that he has great respect for Hrithik. Meanwhile, the filmmaker is set to reintroduce his magnum opus through Baahubali: The Epic a combined version of Baahubali and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which will hit theatres on October 31.