Mumbai: Film director S.S. Rajamouli says the character of Baahubali from his hit franchise was written only for southern star Prabhas, whose performance has been lauded.

Reminiscing about the conception of "Baahubali", Rajamouli said, "We (Prabhas and I) worked on a film 10 years before this and we have been close friends. We would chat for hours and hours together deep into the night, just not about 'Baahubali', but different aspects of filmmaking, the philosophy of filmmaking."

"We strike a chord with each other, we understand each other very well and he knew that I had a burning desire to make a war film and he was game for it."

Rajamouli said Prabhas kept himself free for over three years for the film.

 (Photo- Twitter)

"In fact, he was so much into it, when I asked for his dates for one and half year for this film, he laughed and said you can never make this film in one and half years and he kept himself free for three and half years. In the end, it took five years to make it and he was there for us," Rajamouli said.

Prabhas was there even before the makers started writing the characters.

"I mean we took Anushka or Sivagami or Kattapa, we took the actors based on the characters that were written, but with Prabhas, the character was written for him," he said.

"Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" has surpassed box office records in India.