Rana Daggubati, the well-known Bhallaladeva from the iconic hit films Baahubali 1 and 2, faced a major setback in his personal life, while professionally, he was at the peak. The actor’s life changed as unexpected health challenges surfaced, including kidney failure and heart-related complications, shortly after the release of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion in 2017. But what followed was not just health issues but a complete shift in his course of life as he had to step away from films, travel to the United States for a transplant, return the advance he was paid, and more.
In a recent candid conversation with Rhea Chakraborty on her podcast Chapter 2, when asked about his journey facing the big health scare, actor Rana said it was shocking for him when he first learned about it, as he always considered himself fit and fine.
As Rhea mentioned him as “the hot guy from Hyderabad” who was steadily winning hearts with the success of Baahubali even in Bollywood before his health scare, talking about how life changed from being on a beast mode to transforming into a shrinked figure, the actor highlighted during the time of illness the health scare becomes much more bigger than anything and fixing his health issues became the top priority for him.
However, Rana shared that when he realised the changes in his life, he acknowledged he doesn’t look like he used to due to his health and the way he was eating, which led him to return advances for projects he signed. The actor said, “I had a bunch of films that I was supposed to do. Now, obviously, there were advances and things like that. And then I was not going to come back like the same guy who left. So I’m like, okay, now how am I going to communicate this to these guys?.
Talking about one of his projects, he said, “Now, there was a story of a big-ass wrestler -and all those kinds of films. -Yeah. So I was like I don’t look like any of those guys. Then it was returning advances back, and all that was going on.”
However, Rana shared that when he was returning to India, it hit him hard that he had not been in the town, but people are still the same, and he also highlighted being at the airport getting recognised as Bhallaladeva, which made his day.
Sharing about his friend coming to meet him, Rana shared, “And I remember there was this friend of mine who’s an actor, Varun Tej. He came to see me at some point. He’s a really big guy too. Yeah. -A big beard and stuff. Halfway in the conversation, that guy was looking more like the me that I knew… -…than me. -Than you yourself. So I was like, this is weird. I was like, why don’t I just patch on all these stories to this guy and get it done? But yeah, but that was… It was strange.”
Rana also highlighted, “Not recognizing the version of you was a pretty confusing thing, actually. And I think if I wasn’t an actor, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to cope with that because as an actor, you constantly look different.”
