Tamannaah Bhatia on not cashing in on Baahubali success: ‘Credit for action films is still given to male stars’

Tamannah Bhatia confesses she couldn’t leverage the groundbreaking success of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) as much as she should’ve. She adds that since she wasn’t as evolved a person to make sense of the film’s unprecedented success, she didn’t get much benefit out of it as the rest of the team. (Also read: Tamannaah Bhatia confirms her relationship with Vijay Varma began on the sets of Lust Stories 2: ‘He’s my happy place’)

Tamanaah played Avantika, a skilled combatant opposite Amarendra Baahubali, played by the leading man, Prabhas. While she had a major, action-heavy role in the first part, she was seen only for a cameo in the climax of the sequel, Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017).

‘Male stars get credit for action films’

“I feel like in action films, still the credit is always given to the male counterparts. I think it’s fair that what the film did for Prabhas and Rana (Daggubati) is different from what it did for me, because the amount of the part I had was also like that,” Tamannaah said in an interview with Film Companion.

She added that she didn’t understand the magnitude of the fanfare that Baahubali: The Beginning enjoyed then. While she wishes she got more out of that success, she admits she hasn’t gotten any less. She revealed that the kind of feedback she still gets for that film is ‘unreal.’

‘I wasn’t that evolved as a person’

She also attributed the lack of that film’s impact on her career to her own mental state at that time. She wasn’t evolved enough as a person, and that reflected in not only her performances but also in the way she handled achievements like these.

About Baahubali: The Beginning

Baahubali: The Beginning is a period war film directed by SS Rajamouli, starring Prabhas, Tamannaah, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj and Nassar in key roles. It became the second highest grossing Indian film, only behind its sequel Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, that released a couple of years later.

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