Cinematographer Mukesh G has revealed that Netflix’s shelved Baahubali prequel series Baahubali: Before The Beginning had two complete seasons and portions of a third already filmed before the project was cancelled, with approximately Rs 97 crore spent out of a planned Rs 270 crore budget.

In an interview with Variety India, Mukesh revealed that he spent 18 months as the principal Director of Photography on Netflix’s Baahubali: Before The Beginning, a prequel series based on SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali films, only for the project to be pulled with just 60 to 70 shooting days remaining.

The experience left him in a dark place. “I went into depression for about six months. It didn’t get shelved overnight; it got shelved page by page, which I couldn’t digest. At that point, it was one of the most important projects in India. It remains a very unfortunate episode in my career,” he said.

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Netflix announced Baahubali: Before The Beginning in 2018 as a prestige prequel series centred on the rise of Sivagami, one of the most compelling characters from SS Rajamouli’s two Baahubali films. According to Mukesh G, the series was progressing smoothly under the original Netflix leadership. “What happened was the leadership changed at Netflix. And the new boss wanted a lot of changes. They wanted to add a lot of action in the first season, and she wanted to change the main artiste because they didn’t like the actor’s performance,” Mukesh said.

The actor in question was Mrunal Thakur, who had been playing Sivagami and had shot for months.

Mukesh pointed out that SS Rajamouli had been overseeing the output and was satisfied with what the team had produced. “Rajamouli was supervising our project and even he was happy with the output. So any red flags should have been raised before approvals were given,” he said.

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Netflix did not simply walk away after demanding changes. According to Mukesh G, the streaming platform offered an additional Rs 70 crore to reshoot the series with a new cast. “For our producers, Deva Katta and Praveen Sattaru, it wasn’t just about money. It was our time spent on it.”

The decision to decline was also influenced by practical realities that had changed during the months of uncertainty. By the time the reshuffle was being discussed, Mrunal Thakur’s career had taken off significantly. She had become a much bigger star than she was when she first signed on to play Sivagami, making a clean restart with a new cast logistically and financially complicated. “Replacing lead actors meant throwing away 18 months of footage, which practically went out of hand.”

The human cost of the cancellation extended beyond the core creative team. Mukesh revealed that actors on the series had signed contracts requiring long-term physical changes for their roles, including shaving their heads or growing beards for extended periods. Once the project was shelved and the actors moved on to other work, reassembling the same cast became impossible. “Everyone has moved on now. You can’t bring that back,” he said.

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He admitted that for a few years after the project collapsed, he held onto hope that Netflix might revive it. That hope has since faded. “I had hope even a couple of years back, but now I don’t think so. A few veteran actors from Maharashtra who played key roles are no longer with us.”