Rudransh
Mandarr Kaadam’s upcoming Maratha-era feature, inspired by Chhatrapati Shivaji and Sambhaji Maharaj, is taking Indian period filmmaking to international locations rarely attempted in the genre.
When Indian filmmakers approach the Maratha period, they almost always do so on home soil at the forts of Maharashtra, in studios in Mumbai or Hyderabad, sometimes in Rajasthan or Karnataka. The geography of the genre has, for decades, been almost entirely domestic.
Kolhapur-based director-producer Mandarr Kaadam is taking a notably different approach with his upcoming historical feature, Rudransh – Legacy of a Great King. Produced under his banner OthBrok Production, the film will shoot a significant portion of its schedule in Angola a creative and logistical decision rare for the Maratha-era genre.
It is one of several signals that Rudransh is being built not as a regional production, but as a globally framed cinematic event.
Why Angola
While details of the Angola schedule remain under wraps, the choice reflects Kaadam’s broader ambition: to give Indian historical cinema a visual scale, texture and atmosphere rarely attempted within the genre. The African landscapes, the team has hinted, will support specific narrative and visual requirements that Maharashtra locations alone could not provide.
The Angola leg complements the primary shoot across Maharashtra, where Maratha-era forts, landscapes and culturally significant locations will anchor the film’s identity. The dual-country production model is becoming increasingly common for Indian big-budget cinema, but rarely within the historical genre and almost never for a Maratha-era story.
“If the world is going to watch our history, our history deserves a global frame.”
— Mandarr Kaadam, Director-Producer
The director behind the ambition
The international shoot is consistent with Kaadam’s larger creative profile. Trained as a fine artist at R.S. Gosavi Kalaniketan Mahavidyalaya in Kolhapur, he later spent years in brand development before turning to cinema full-time. That combination art, design, brand thinking, storytelling is visible in how he is approaching Rudransh.
“Mandarr is thinking like an international producer,” said a Mumbai-based production designer who has consulted on multiple recent historical films. “He is not asking ‘can we do this in Maharashtra’. He is asking ‘where in the world will this scene look most cinematically right’. That is a different starting point. It changes the film’s entire vocabulary.”
Five years of foundation, before the first frame
The Angola shoot is the most visible signal of Rudransh‘s global ambition, but it is not the only one. Underpinning the entire project is five years of pre-production research a commitment of time almost unheard of in modern Indian filmmaking. The team has worked with manuscripts, regional administrative records, royal correspondence, battlefield references, and oral traditions across that period.
Inspired by the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the screenplay has been built on documented historical material rather than artistic shortcuts. The film’s title track has been recorded by Sukhwinder Singh, the Oscar and Grammy-winning playback singer a further marker of the film’s national-and-global creative profile.
Six languages, worldwide release
Like its production geography, the film’s release strategy is also designed for reach. Rudransh will release in Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, followed by a worldwide rollout. The film is being mounted as a big-budget production with full theatrical scale.
Casting for the lead and antagonist roles is still under wraps, with the team confirming only that ‘industry-leading names’ have been approached. The target release window is late 2026 or early 2027.
What this means for Indian historical cinema
If Rudransh executes its production model as planned, it could quietly reshape what ‘historical Indian cinema’ looks like at the planning stage. The genre has, until now, been bounded by domestic geography. By taking a Maratha-era story to Angola, Kaadam is testing whether Indian historical filmmaking can think globally without losing its roots.
For a director who has spent five years preparing the film at his desk, the move from manuscripts to international locations is the next logical step. “We spent five years building the world on paper,” he has said. “Now we are building it on camera. The location is part of the story.”
ABOUT THE FILM
Rudransh – Legacy of a Great King is an upcoming pan-India big-budget historical feature film inspired by the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Directed and produced by Mandarr Kaadam (Mandar Kadam) under the banner of OthBrok Production, the film will release in Marathi, Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, with shooting planned across Maharashtra and Angola through 2026. The film targets a late-2026 or early-2027 release window.
Official: mandarrkaadam.com
Production: othbrokproduction.com
Tags: Rudransh · Legacy of a Great King · Mandarr Kaadam · Mandar Kadam · OthBrok Production · Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj · Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj · Maratha Empire · Pan-India Historical Film · Kolhapur · Maharashtra · 2026 · 2027
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