When the story of India's next great historical epic is told, it will not begin in a Mumbai boardroom. It will begin at a desk in Kolhapur, where filmmaker Mandar Kadam, professionally known as MandarrKaadam, has spent the last five years building a film the way almost no one in the industry builds films anymore. Slowly. Independently. And on the strength of evidence.
The film is Rudransh: Legacy of a Great King, a big-budget historical feature inspired by the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Produced under Kaadam's own banner, OthBrok Production, it is now entering production after a pre-production phase that lasted half a decade, a timeline almost unheard of in Indian cinema, where historical films are routinely announced one year and released the next.
Research That Crossed Two Continents
What separates Rudransh from every other period film in development is not just how long the research took, but how far it went. The project draws from manuscripts, regional records, royal correspondence, battlefield references and oral histories preserved across generations.
And then the research left India. Kaadam travelled across European countries, including Portugal and France, studying archival records and collecting previously unseen evidence connected to the Maratha era. According to the makers, that material has opened up entirely new chapters that Indian cinema has never touched.
This is where the film's central promise takes shape. While most historical films retell the events audiences already know, Rudransh is being built to reveal what audiences have never seen, with every major narrative thread traceable to a documented source.
"Every scene in Rudransh exists because a document, a record or a tradition says it happened. That is the film we spent five years building." Mandarr Kaadam, Director-Producer
The Story Only One Film Is Attempting
Period films have traditionally centred on a single historical figure, with separate projects dedicated to individual kings, warriors or battles. Rudransh is taking a harder road, bringing the legacies of both Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj into a single cinematic narrative. Founder and inheritor. Father and son. The continuity between two of the most revered figures in Indian history, treated as one story.
The makers say this dual scope is precisely why the film needed five years before its first day of shooting. Two figures of this stature demand broader research, a longer narrative arc and a deeper understanding of the era that connected them.
The Devanagari first-look creative of Rudransh (रुद्रांश), releasing in six Indian languages and multiple international languages worldwide.
A Scale Few Indian Films Have Ever Attempted
The numbers around Rudransh read like the blueprint of one of the biggest historical films ever mounted in India. The film will release across the country in six languages, Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, followed by a worldwide rollout in multiple international languages, placing it among the widest language releases ever planned for an Indian historical film.
Principal photography will span two countries, with the primary schedule across Maharashtra and a significant portion of the shoot moving to Angola, making it one of the first Maratha-era Indian productions to film internationally.
The music has already made its first statement. Sukhwinder Singh, the Oscar and Grammy-winning voice behind 'Jai Ho', has recorded the film's title track.
Built Independently, By Design
Kaadam's path to this moment did not run through film school or a studio system. He trained as a fine artist at R.S. Gosavi Kalaniketan Mahavidyalaya in Kolhapur, spent years in brand development, and then entered cinema with both disciplines intact. His banner, OthBrok Production, is being built as a long-term creative house rather than a single-film vehicle.
More about the director and his journey is available on his official website, and details about the banner behind the film can be found at OthBrok Production.
What Comes Next
Casting is currently under wraps, with the team confirming that both the lead and antagonist roles are being filled by “industry-leading names.” Cast announcements, first-look material and the music album are expected to roll out in the coming months as the film moves through production, targeting a theatrical release in late 2026 or early 2027.
For complete production details and credits, see Rudraansh on IMDb and Mandarr Kaadam's IMDb profile.
In an industry where scale usually comes from studios, Rudransh: Legacy of a Great King is proving that India's biggest stories can still come from a single, determined vision. Remember where you read the name first.
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