‘The Raja Saab’ director Maruthi calls his lead star Prabhas ‘a medium-range hero’; expresses gratitude towards SS Rajamouli |

At a special sneak peek for ‘The Raja Saab’, director Maruthi stirred the pot by calling Prabhas a ‘medium-range hero’. His remarks caught the attention of the audience, who quickly took to social media to express their opinions. While Maruthi praised Prabhas’ international stature, he also credited S.S. Rajamouli for bringing the ‘pan-India’ trend to the forefront.

The makers of ‘The Raja Saab’, starring Prabhas, hosted a pre-release event in Hyderabad on Saturday, in the presence of the entire cast and crew. Director Maruthi delivered an emotional speech at the event. However, in the flow, a comment made by the filmmaker didn’t go well with Prabhas fans. Here’s what happened.

Maruthi comments on Prabhas’ massive fame

At the Hyderabad event, Maruthi opened up about Prabhas and his popularity across the world. The filmmaker shared that they visited a remote village in South Africa. He recalled telling a person over there that he is a movie director. According to him, after this, the person replied, “Oh really?” and looked at him from “top to bottom.”

Murthi further shared, “I then asked him if he knew who my hero was, and he asked, ‘Who?’ When I said ‘Prabhas,’ he replied, ‘Oh, the Baahubali hero?’ This shows that he has become known even to people of a different tribe in the Masai Mara.”But then, the filmmaker made a controversial statement. He added that every director is indebted to S S Rajamouli because he was the one who made the “pan-India” concept popular with ‘Baahubali’. Maruthi added that SSR “introduced a medium-range hero to the Pan-India stage and established a massive cutout (stature) for the world today.”

The issue

While some fans agreed to what the filmmaker expressed on stage, others were unhappy that he labelled Prabhas as a “medium-range hero.” Prabhas’ admirers went on to drop images of the actor’s box office collections and advance bookings for the film to prove that he is not what the filmmaker said. On the other hand, a few also stated that actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, and Ram Charan were behind stars like Mahesh Babu until they delivered hits like ‘Baahubali’, ‘Pushpa’, and ‘RRR’.

More about ‘The Raja Saab’

‘The Raja Saab’ stars Prabhas, Sanjay Dutt, Nidhhi Agerwal, Malavika Mohanan, Riddhi Kumar, and Boman Irani. The movie is said to be a horror comedy. It is scheduled to hit theaters on January 9, 2026.