Bottlebali: How one of Baahubali’s iconic scenes was shot using just a water bottle

A hand holding up a baby out of raging waters… it was one of the first publicity stills released by Baahubali’s crew, showcasing the immense special effects of the superhit film. The movie went on to earn nearly Rs 500 crore at the box office and became the highest-grossing Tollywood movie, ever. And it was recently revealed that a water bottle had a very important role to play in the scene.

“That bottle was a reference point — served to help us get a grip on how to ‘make’ the baby,” explains Dorababu Achanta, VFX head of Hyderabad-based Makuta Studios, who did over 50 per cent of the film’s special effects.

“As far as manhours go, that baby shot with the bottle took a week. But then reworks after reworks followed and it took nearly two months for the final product,” explains Achanta.

It also needed a stunt person underwater, holding up the bottle. For the arm holding up the bottle, we had a person underwater in a swimming pool in which we were shooting. It was quite the job.”

The “baby shot” is part of a series of VFX breakdown images that have been released recently. The series also sheds light on how the waterfall scenes with Tamannaah (pictured right) were created. “Over 200 versions of the waterfall were done before the final version. It was definitely an awesome task. We loved working on this movie,” Achanta adds.

The VFX head also answered a question that has been on everyone’s minds — how do they watch a movie they have worked on?

“Oh, we just look around for audience reactions. When Baahubali’s VFX scenes came up, we enjoyed the ‘oohs and aahs’, that’s what VFX guys do,” he says with a laugh.