SS Rajamouli is pushing Indian cinema’s world-building boundaries once again. The filmmaker is reportedly developing an entirely new fictional language for his upcoming magnum opus Varanasi.

Reports say a linguistic expert has been hired to create the language and its script from scratch. It will be used in a sequence involving an ancient cave, where the characters encounter writings in an ancient script tied to the film’s time-travel plot across different eras.

This would be Rajamouli’s second invented tongue after Kiliki, the language created for the Kalakeya tribe in Baahubali (2015) with lyricist Madhan Karky. Unlike Kiliki, which was mostly spoken on screen, the Varanasi language is expected to play a larger role in the narrative.

Varanasi stars Mahesh Babu, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran, and is slated for a global theatrical release on April 7, 2027. Rajamouli has said he aims to finish shooting by October this year, with post-production to follow.