The answer feels like a yes.

Rajamouli carries two big tags. One is that he is an ambitious filmmaker. The other is that he is a marketing genius. But looking at recent developments, the feedback he needs to hear is simple. He is pushing himself too much where it is not required and is creating challenges for himself that add no value.

Take the recent Varanasi title reveal event. Rajamouli sat with the team, sketched multiple ideas and planned a grand opening. It was designed to be a Rajamouli style event that would open Varanasi with a bang. But the outcome was the opposite. Whether people admit it or not, even Rajamouli would not be satisfied with how it turned out.

And the reality is simple. Once an event is over, no one remembers how well the event happened. It is always about how the actual video came out. But in this case, the event itself is going to be remembered for how poorly it was executed. That is the bigger irony.

Another question stands out. How many people would actually watch this kind of live event at the venue, even if it has the largest LED screen? A tiny percentage. The real audience is the online viewers, both in India and globally. Rajamouli knows this better than anyone, yet the event did not reflect that understanding. He did not identify who the target audience was or what the target segment needed.

To make it even more surprising, he brought Hollywood media all the way from the US. Yet the event was planned and executed like any routine Telugu cinema event. If the idea was to reach a global audience, then what message was he trying to send with this setup? It made no sense. What were those foreign media folks supposed to do, breaking their heads trying to follow the live event with Telugu commentary? The stream was made available on the Variety YouTube channel for a U.S. audience, whether they were Telugu viewers or American people who started following Rajamouli's work after the RRR success in the U.S.

Why did all this happen? The same reason again. He is pushing himself in situations where it is unnecessary. The event could have been launched cleanly indoors. He could have interacted with Hollywood and other foreign media. He could have set a different standard. Instead he struggled through a regular Telugu style event that we have all seen many times.

The main culprit is the expectation he set for himself, combined with the high expectations the audience has for him. But the blame still falls on Rajamouli, he is someone who cannot accept this outcome more than anyone.

Even the ideas planned for the event were off. Mahesh Babu entering on the Nandi was nothing but cringe. It is shocking that Rajamouli and the team approved it. If he replays the visual, it closely resembles the Manikarnika clip where Kangana was heavily trolled. Leave that comparison aside, the bigger question is simple. Is this up to Rajamouli's standard? Is this the brand SS Rajamouli? No one would expect such cringe ideas from him.

This problem exists because Rajamouli created this pattern for himself. He executed a few big launch events earlier, they worked, so he pushed himself again. But this time it failed, and again, it was unnecessary. What truly matters is the movie he is making. From the visuals he released, the film looks massive. A simple indoor event with fewer people would have delivered a launch that was far better in every way.

If Rajamouli is reading this, he would agree. The event was not just a miss. It was surprising to see a director of his level give importance to things that do not matter in 2025. A personality like Rajamouli does not compromise on quality, so he has surely learned from this and must have regretted the choices made.

The good part is that this happened early. Whatever he does next, we hope it lives up to the SS Rajamouli brand, and more important, he does not need to push himself for every promotional effort unless he knows he can nail it.