S.S. Rajamouli is due at the 50th São Paulo Mostra on Monday, 19 October. The programme puts, at 5:30 p.m. at Solar Fábio Prado’s Sala Petrobras, a special screening of “RRR” (2022), the Leon Cakoff Prize and a masterclass. It is, Mostra says, the film’s first big-screen run in Brazil; it had arrived there on streaming. Folha published, the day before, an interview in which Rajamouli talks about cinema as a religion of the hall: emotion, he says, pulls the action scenes, not the other way round.

“RRR” travelled on Netflix far from India, with the “Naatu Naatu” dance as a recognition mark. Rajamouli told São Paulo he does not build his shots as political demonstrations. “As apolitical as possible” was the phrase he used when asked for a Hindu-nationalist reading of the films. The refusal is his; the films remain the audience’s.

The next announced project is “Varanassi,” set for 2027, with a pan-release. It is not a Mostra premiere and not a trailer launched in São Paulo. It is a production date, given in a festival interview. 2027 is not a review and not a distribution contract published here.

Rajamouli turns up in a year when Mostra marks half a century. His presence is an invitation, not a prize competition in Folha’s report. São Paulo usually mixes auteurs and industry in the same week; the masterclass is the format, not a campaign speech.

The director insisted that action in his films has to start from what the characters feel, not from stunt choreography. That is a set method, not a theory of religion. The temple comparison is his, about a full cinema, not a cult. Folha kept that distinction in the headline: cinema and religion draw close in his words; they do not replace each other.

The festival confirms the hour and the place. The interview confirms what he wanted to say before he took the stage. Until the masterclass, 18 October leaves three checked facts: Rajamouli is in São Paulo on the 19th, “RRR” is the recognition point, “Varanassi” is announced for 2027. The rest is the tone of a guest who refuses to read his films as a political programme.

Image: Virginia Lucia Campos Mendonca, Cinemateca Brasileira, Sao Paulo, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; a city film archive, not Sala Petrobras on 19 October 2026.

Sources consulted: RRR director draws cinema and religion close and says emotion guides action scenes - Folha; Sala Petrobras at Mostra schedule, 19 October - Sao Paulo International Film Festival.