Ramayana, Kanguva, Animal: Why Indian cinema is embracing the two-part film format

The trend of multi-part films in Indian cinema is growing, with recent blockbusters like Pushpa, Animal, Salaar, and Kalki 2898 AD following a two-part format. Filmmaker-writer Koratala Siva, whose movie Devara has two parts, says, “As a writer, I’d love to narrate the story in one part. Shankar, who made a sequel to the Kamal Haasan-starrer Indian in two parts, said during the trailer launch of Indian 2 in June: “If I compressed the whole thing just for the sake of making the film in one part, the soul of every scene would have been lost.” However, there have also been examples in the past where the second part was shelved after the first one didn’t work — actor Vicky Kaushal’s Bhoot: The Haunted Ship, actor John Abraham’s Attack: Part 1 and actor Tiger Shroff’s Ganapath, for instance. Some makers are confident that they won’t be able to wrap up an ambitious story in just one part.” V Vijayendra Prasad, the writer of Baahubali and father of filmmaker SS Rajamouli, who helmed the franchise, explains how the part two of the film was conceptualised: “Baahubali originally wasn’t supposed to be in two parts. He suggested keeping Kattappa killing Baahubali as the end of part one, as a cliffhanger.” Siva opines that once you’ve decided to make a film in two parts, the fate of the first can’t impact it.