SS Rajamouli seems to be making a strong push to showcase Varanasi’s Hollywood reach, but the strategy raises questions about its effectiveness. Recently, he invited a few American reporters to Hyderabad to interact with him, as well as the cast and crew, seemingly to project a global appeal to Indian audiences and OTT executives.

One of the channels involved is Screen Rant Plus, which has just around 157K subscribers and limited traction within Hollywood circles. Ironically, the most-viewed video on this channel recently is Rajamouli’s interview, which has crossed 180K views—slightly above its usual numbers. The second-highest video is a group interview about Varanasi, while the third-highest has only 971 views. For perspective, two years ago, their highest-performing video on Citadel garnered 8.4M views.

Even more striking is the audience engagement: the comments under Rajamouli’s interview are overwhelmingly from Telugu viewers rather than Hollywood audiences. Most comments focus not on the film or his insights but on the interviewer’s appearance, such as remarks like “Interviewer also looking like Mahesh Babu” or “The interviewer looks dashing.” In essence, viewers connected more with the reporter’s looks than with Rajamouli’s message.

Another channel used was Collider Interviews, where interviewers spoke with Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra, and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Yet many of Collider’s videos receive only a few hundred to a thousand views, with the exception of one Stranger Things video from seven years ago that crossed 3.4M views. This demonstrates that the popularity of the content, not the channel, drives engagement. So far, the Varanasi interview on this channel has crossed 607K views, again predominantly from Telugu audiences.

The broader concern is that Rajamouli seems to be bypassing local and national media entirely. During RRR, he focused primarily on Bollywood outlets while largely ignoring Telugu media; now, he appears to be ignoring Indian media as a whole. Expensive arrangements—bringing white-skinned reporters to Hyderabad in business or first class, hosting them in star hotels, and providing lavish dinners—are yielding minimal traction with genuinely influential Hollywood audiences.

To maximize impact, Rajamouli should aim to attract major global outlets such as Entertainment Tonight, E! News, TMZ, People, Deadline, CNN, or FOX News, generating hype for Varanasi as a monumental event in Indian cinema. The reality is that the core audience for Varanasi is Indian, with Telugu viewers forming a significant portion. Ignoring them and communicating primarily in English to niche international reporters risks alienating the very audience that will ultimately drive the film’s success.

Rajamouli’s talent is unquestionable, but for a project of this scale, connecting with local audiences while simultaneously building genuine global awareness is key—focusing exclusively on smaller Hollywood channels may not achieve the desired results.