Media365
4 min readHyderabadUpdated: Oct 7, 2026 08:11 PM IST
Vijay Deverakonda and Rashmika Mandanna’s upcoming film Ranabaali has an interesting similarity with Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. For the unversed, Inglourious Basterds is an alternate history film where certain historical events are modified for cinematic liberty. Director Rahul Sankrityan has followed the same principle for Ranabaali where he has cast South African actor, Arnold Vosloo, in the role of the antagonist.
Arnold, best known for playing Imhotep in The Mummy franchise, plays Sir Theodore Hector in the film. The character is based on Sir Richard Temple, the British commissioner who oversaw the Madras Famine of 1876-78, which reportedly resulted in the death of approximately 10 million people. Rahul spoke about the “alternate history” angle of the film and shared with Gulte Pro, “Ranabaali is pure fantasy to me, born out of anger. Nowadays, people call it alternate history. The film talks about how it’d look if things happened differently. How would it be? When you hear that kind of history, you feel like, if I were there or had a chance, I’d do things differently. There’s this sort of urge or anger. That anger gives rise to fantasy.”
In popular Indian cinema, SS Rajamouli’s RRR was also an alternate history film where it took two real-life freedom fighters, and created a fictional story around them.
Also Read: ‘Turn that music off’: Vijay Deverakonda’s blunt first words to Rashmika Mandanna on set
Since the film was set during a period that saw the death of millions, brutality was going to be an essential part of the film, and for the director, the big question was: how much is too much.
Using a specific example from Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, he said, “In Tarantino’s Django Unchained, there’s this one scene where DiCaprio lets his dogs loose one by one on a slave, and they tear him apart. I heard they shot that scene super intense, but Tarantino realised that the scene is so disturbing that viewers can’t really enjoy the next 20 to 30 minutes because the impact is just too strong. They get so shaken up that they’re unable to enjoy the rest of the movie since the feeling sticks with them.”
The lesson Rahul drew from this was about calibration. “When you’re portraying something so hard-hitting, you have to figure out how much tone or intensity is just right for showing those atrocities. It’s like finding the right balance, kind of like having a meter in the writing,” he said.
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The calibration continued in the editing room. After completing the shoot, Rahul screened the film for two different audience groups. The feedback was consistent: the atrocities were too harsh. “It’s history, but nowadays the audience is more sensitive. They might not be able to handle it. So I had to tone it down. In many sequences, I reduced the intensity of the atrocities, just as much as needed,” he said.
Also Read: Vijay Deverakonda was ‘scared’ of speaking to women; Rashmika recalls attacks over accent
About Ranabaali
Ranabaali stars Vijay Deverakonda as Singanamala Bobbili Ranabaali, a Rayalaseema warrior who rises against British colonial forces during the Madras Famine. Rashmika Mandanna plays his wife Jayamma. Arnold Vosloo plays the British antagonist Sir Theodore Hector, based on the historical figure Sir Richard Temple.
The film is produced by Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar under Mythri Movie Makers, presented by T-Series, with music by Ajay-Atul and cinematography by Nirav Shah and Jishnu Bhattacharjee. It releases worldwide on October 16.
