But for now, he’s South India’s biggest star since Rajinikanth – and Tollywood would rather he stay just where he is. Today, that’s sun-drenched Los Angeles, where the star is on vacation from shooting his new movie Saaho, a brooding trilingual thriller co-starring Shraddha Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh.
Life has been good for the star since the wild success of the Baahubali franchise, the priciest Indian film ever made. The thunderous two-part epic grossed over ₹1,500 crore in less than 50 days, redefined what was possible for Telugu action movies and shook rigid pan-Indian cinema hierarchies. But Prabhas himself, the face of the phenomenon – who tosses a life-sized lingam over a sinewy shoulder in one memorable scene – feels familiar.
“Something very beautiful happened in my life. Baahubali has given something 10,000 times more than what I did before. Or even more than that.” He exhales, and a cloud of vapour smoke escapes his e-cigarette. “After this, I don’t know where I’m going.”
Despite being one of the Telugu film industry’s top-paid actors (he copped a pretty ₹45 crore from both Baahubali films), Prabhas is a man who worries – about his future, his fans and how the hell he even got here.
Growing up, he recalls, his father, Telugu producer Uppalapati Raju, hit financial troubles “like most producers do”, and at times money was tight. Tight enough to leave 2017 Prabhas with some squarely middle-class memories.
“I went to college in buses,” he explains, kicking off one Manchester United slipper to cross his left leg. With my family background, that was big, you know? When I went in the bus, people knew that ‘Yeah, he’s from a very big family.’ So all these things helped me work harder.”
Few things animate Prabhas like the story of his film debut. In 2002, a doe-eyed 22-year-old Prabhas was offered a role in Eeswar, a movie with a budget so small it was shot blind on an ancient analog camera. Prabhas describes the surreal experience of watching himself on the 70mm screen for the first time.
“My sister and my mother were sitting on [either] side and we were holding hands and watching,” he tells me. “And I could feel, ‘The film is good.’ It didn’t do so well but, you know, every shot of the film, we didn’t know until then if it’s good or amazing or what... It was something very emotional.”
Even now, 17 films later, Prabhas is unsure about what it is that resonates with audiences. “It’s very frightening to make fans happy,” he says. “Fans have unconditional love, like mothers.”
Blazer by Stefano Ricci
Jumper by United Colors Of Benetton
Jeans by G-Star Raw
Pocket Square by Paul Smith
Watch by Vacheron Constantin
Assistant stylist: Desirée Fernandes
Hair: Team Hakim's Aalim
Make-up: Shambhu Kumar Rai
Production: Megha Mehta, Avakkai Films