The first look of Prabhas’s upcoming film Radhe Shyam with Pooja Hegde, released on Friday, and has created a huge wave of excitement among his fans. The film is directed by Radha Krishna Kumar.
The new poster has made fans nostalgic for Prabhas’s earlier love stories. Before he rose to international prominence in the past few years with the larger-than-life epic action Baahubali films, following it with the action thriller Saaho, Prabhas was considered to be a heartthrob for his romance films by the Telugu audience.
Here are five films where Prabhas made his fans swoon with his portrayal of the lover:
Varsham
Varsham is remembered today for its soundtrack by Devi Sri Prasad, with all the songs becoming blockbusters. An early career film for Prabhas, Trisha as well as Devi Sri Prasad, the music was an intrinsic part of the iconic love story. Prabhas plays Venkat, an unemployed young man who falls in love with Shailaja (Trisha), a beautiful, quirky woman. The rain follows them throughout the story, starting from the first time Venkat sees Shailaja dancing in the rain and falls for her. Miscommunication, an evil father, and an even more evil villain drive them apart before they come back together.
Most of the story takes place in Warangal, and Venkat and Shailaja come across as a regular small town boy and girl. Yet, the Thousand Pillar Temple and the rain bring a sense of grandeur and transcendence to the film, which is also how fans are seeing the Radhe Shyam poster, with the orange tinted sky, red waters and the Colosseum in the backdrop. While Prabhas and Trisha went on to act together in Pournami and Bujjigadu, Varsham remains their most memorable romance.
Darling
Darling is the story of Prabha (Prabhas) and Nandini (Kajal Aggarwal), who are separated in their childhood as their fathers, who are close friends, move apart. Reunited years later, Prabha makes many attempts to woo Nandini, and overcomes many obstacles to finally win her over.
While Darling may not have been one of Prabhas’s most popular films, it is the term of endearment that Prabhas and his fans now use to address each other. It also remains a favourite among fans of Prabhas and Kajal.
Mr Perfect
In Mr Perfect, Prabhas plays Vicky, a ‘perfectionist’ who never compromises on anything, nor does he allow anyone else to do so for his sake. A video game programmer living in Australia, Vicky is about to be engaged to Priya (Kajal Aggarwal), but breaks it off when he finds out that Priya would have to give up everything familiar to her — her hometown in India, her dreams, her pet dog — if they were to end up together.
He goes on to meet Maggie (Taapsee Pannuu), and the two of them decide to get married. But Maggie’s parents have a condition — they want Vicky to earn his entire family’s acceptance for the wedding. In the middle of all the family drama, Priya lands up in Australia as an extended family member. What follows is the triangle love story of Mr Perfect. The movie came under the production of Dil Raju and the music was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, a successful combination in those days.
Baahubali
Much has been written about the iconic couple Amarendra (Prabhas) and Devasena (Anushka) in Baahubali 2. While the gender and caste politics of the series have been critiqued in detail, Devasena has remained a redeeming factor as well as a fan favourite.
Devasena, a majestic queen and warrior, has a near equal relationship with Amarendra, and the couple has earned a huge global fandom.
Eeswar
This is the debut film of Prabhas, through which he was introduced to the Telugu film industry as the nephew of popular Telugu actor Krishnam Raju. Though the movie did not attain box office success, the acting skills of Prabhas as the angry young man Eeswar were noted by the industry.
Eeswar is the story of a motherless child, who grows up in a slum in the Dhoolpet area of Hyderabad’s Old City. Eeswar hates his father for remarrying another woman. He falls in love with Indu (Sridevi Vijaykumar), who happens to be the daughter of a local MLA. How Eeswar manages to reconcile with his family and also wins Indu’s love is the rest of the film. The movie was directed by Jayanth C Paranjee and produced by K Ashok Kumar. The songs of this movie were noted for their 'mass' beats, composed by music director RP Patnaik.