Acclaimed Telugu director S. S. Rajamouli took the stage at the 2026 Annecy Animation Film Festival to introduce the animated expansion of his hugely successful Baahubali franchise during a Work in Progress presentation. The film, Baahubali: The Eternal War Part 1, is set to be “a story deeply rooted in India but told through the universal medium of animation.”
The film is a CG spin-off set between Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali: The Conclusion. For Rajamouli, it offered an opportunity to expand the franchise in new ways, using animation to broaden the story’s scope. Though there have already been two animated Baahubali series, they failed to generate the same excitement as the live-action films. The Eternal War, however, has an intriguing premise, impressive aesthetic, and a thrilling trailer that give it an edge.
“One day, one crazy guy comes along, Ishan Shukla, and he gives us an idea of what happens to Baahubali after his death, and he goes into the 14 realms of Indian mythology,” Rajamouli told the Annecy crowd. This is the premise of The Eternal War, which follows Baahubali after his murder at the end of The Beginning as he journeys through the different realms of the afterlife, encounters gods, and becomes caught up in a war of epic proportions.
“The exciting thing is to explore this as an alternate universe,” director Ishan Shukla told Cartoon Brew after the WIP presentation. “I really wanted people to see something fresh and unique and tell a new story with this character. Some of the dead characters from the film can appear here, but this is about a brand new story and a new cast. If it feels too much like the original, then it feels like you’re milking the franchise. I wanted to make sure it feels like a genuine expansion of it instead.”
That is why Shukla decided to fully embrace fantasy.
“If you see the live-action movies, they are almost like superhumans, so we decided to double down on that.”
The depiction of the 14 realms of the Indian afterlife and its many gods has never been attempted in cinema before, for obvious reasons. It is a monumental undertaking, but one that offers the opportunity to explore some truly wild concepts. During the Work in Progress presentation, Shukla spoke excitedly about portraying giant eagles, double-headed elephants, and Vimāna, flying palaces that resemble flying saucers.
For co-writer Sowmya Sharma, the extensive research into Indian mythology proved more challenging than she expected.
“I thought it was going to be a very quick research process because Indian mythological stories are my bedtime stories, and I thought I knew most of them,” Sharma said. “But once I opened the book, it was endless nights.”
That research extended beyond mythology itself to the cultural specificity that gives the film its distinct identity. The action incorporates Indian martial arts such as Kalaripayattu into its choreography, while dance forms including Chhau and Kuchipudi also feature prominently.
To accomplish this enormous task, Shukla and his team are working with eight studios from around the world, including companies in Scotland, France, India, and Japan. The last of those drew a particularly enthusiastic reaction from the Annecy audience when Shukla revealed that the team is collaborating with renowned Studio Khara (Rebuild of Evangelion) on a 2D sequence for the film.
‘Baahubali’ Studio Khara Still
“It’s super fun to see. I gave them complete freedom,” Shukla told Cartoon Brew. “They are hitting it out of the park and doing it their own way. We are not just anime fans, but movie fans, so having them on board is such an honor.”
But just because the rest of the film is in CG does not mean it will be any less visually striking. For Shukla, it was important to develop an art style that preserved the look and feel of the concept art.
“I thought since we’re going big with this movie, we’re going global, we should try something contemporary,” Shukla explained. “It’s not going to look like an old animation movie, and it’s not going hyper-realistic because that ages really fast. Instead, we wanted something more painterly, something closer to the concept art. It’s tragic when you get great concept art, and then the final CG looks nothing like it, so the idea was to mimic the concept art while adding some sakuga-style anime because we have gods fighting.”
Though Baahubali: The Eternal War uses animation to introduce fantastical new worlds and characters, it also aims to preserve the work Rajamouli established in the live-action films. That proved more difficult than anticipated, particularly when it came to the design of the titular hero, originally played by Telugu star Prabhas.
Animation director Antoine Charreyron singled out the challenge during the presentation.
“It was a long process because we wanted to stylize him, but still wanted him to look like the actual Prabhas,” Charreyron said. “We went through many iterations, but the most difficult thing was the hair. He just has so much hair!”