Leadership Lessons from “Bahubali – The Beginning”

Hi friends,

I have been thinking about writing a blog from quite a sometime but was unable to find a topic on which I can more relate to write. Yesterday I saw the movie “Bahubali – The Beginning” for the second time and I suddenly realised that I have got the topic for my first Blog.

There have been many definitions on leadership and the one which I found more relevant is “Leadership is the interpersonal influence exercised in a situation and directed through the communication process, towards the attainment of a specific goal or goals” [1] (lots of jargons but it defines correctlyJ)

Based on my understanding about the leadership (not the theoretical one) I found some traits of leadership in various characters of the movie, so let’s have a look at them.

1.      Perseverance :

In the beginning of the movie Bahubali’s son SHIVUDU (Prabhas) always tried to climb up the mountain as he thought that he has got some connection beneath the mountain. He was trying to climb up the mountains right from his childhood days but he got success after years of continuous practice and efforts.

For any leader it is very important that he/she should be very clear about the goals and continuously thrive for the success until it is achieved. In the movie the driving force for the character was something different (Tammana Bhatia) but in real life the leaders the clarity of thoughts regarding the target and perseverance to achieve it is very crucial and important.

---

[1] Source: Organisational Behaviour, 11^th edition, Himalaya Publication House 

2.       Develop:

One of the main responsibilities of the leader is to create new leaders, so for this trait of leadership the focus of the characters will divert a bit.

The character which has shown this quality of developing leaders is SHIVAGAMI (Ramya Krishnan). She could have easily given the throne of the king of Kingdom of Mahishmati to her own son Bhallaldeva or the throne was offered to her as well, but the lady having dignity and respect to the throne, she chose to train both Bhallaldeva and Bahubali under same circumstances and declared that whosoever will perform well, will be given the throne of Mahishmati Kingdom.

She gave equal opportunities to both of them and she was unbiased for both of them in terms of providing facilities. 

3.      Initiative Quality:

When the council of Mahishmati Kingdom was forming a strategy to fight against the KAALKEYA’S, the evil dynasty, Bahubali suggested the “Trishul Vyuh” strategy to fight against the Kaalkeya’s who were having a strength 4 times than the Mahishmati’s. Everybody said that this strategy is theoretical and never adopted by anybody but BHALLALDEVA (Rana Daggubati) supported him saying that if nobody knows it then Kaalkeya’s must also be not knowing about it.

So it is very important for any leader that he/she should take the initiatives whenever required and apply the knowledge and experience that he/she has got in the past years. Taking initiatives will also build confidence in the team members as well and they will feel more confident and secure having a leader like this.

4.      Emotional Appeal

Before going to the war there is a ritual that they offer the life of any animal (buffalo) to their goddess and go to the war. When Bahubali is called for the ritual he stops the executioner and donates his own blood saying why we should sacrifice the life of an innocent animal my own boiling blood is sufficient.

It becomes very necessary for any leader to think emotionally to a certain level as leaders have to deal with human beings and every human have emotions. The strength of a leader lies in his team and the success of the leader will depend on the way he treats his team.

Sometime people may try to emotionally blackmail the leader, so the leader have to be so smart that the people should not take advantage of his weak emotional link. The leader should be emotionally balanced.

5.      Innovate  (optimum utilization of resources)

When the war started between the Maahishmati’s and Kaalkeya’s it was decided that the army and weaponry would be equally divided between Bahubali and Bhallaldeva but BIJJALADEVA (Nasser) decisively gave better army and weaponries to his son Bhallaldeva.

Bahubali knew about it and in spite of complaining he used the resources that he have got and come up with a very innovative way where many opponents can be killed in one shot.

It can happen in everyday life of a leader where he is in lack of resources but still he have to be cool and composed and try to prove his excellence through his actions and try not to give excuses for non-performance.

6.      Inspire

While the war was going on there was a time when the Kaalkeya’s dominated the Maahishmati’s and were able to invade their territory. Almost every soldier lost his hope of winning and started chanting about death. Bahubali sensed the situation and gave an exceptional speech to his people making them understand the true meaning of death, which means failure to stand again.

It is very common in the workplace or anywhere that the people will get deflected from the target or they will find it difficult to get some motivation to work then here the role of the leader start. The leader have to make his/her team work and work efficiently so that objective can be achieved.

7.      Care for The People

There is a scene in the war where the Kaalkeya’s got some hostage from the Maahishmati’s. They have use this strategy to stop Bahubali and Bhallaldeva but Bhallaldeva haven’t given a single thought for the hostages and killed them as well with the enemies while Bahubali stops there for a moment and comes up with strategy that they can save the hostages.

At the end when it was declared that the throne of the king will be given to Bahubali then it was mentioned by Shivagami that he has been awarded because he not only defeated the enemies but saved the life of their people as well.

To be a leader it should be like working with them not ordering them, the people should feel that the leader is like us only, he understands us and value us.

The leader should try to work as he can make place in the minds of his/her team and build confidence in his team that they can trust him/her.

8. Perform

Last but not the least that the leader should perform and lead by examples. As in the movie the instructions was given to both Bahubali and Bhallaldeva to kill the chief of Kaalkeya’s but only Bahubali was able to fight with the enemy (although Bhallaldeva killed the chief).

So if any leader is only giving lectures and theories to his subordinates then the work for the leader is not done he has to perform and guide others as well.

(No images for this section…)

A big thank you to the whole team of Bahubali for making such a beautiful movie and taking Indian cinema to all-new level of standards in every aspect and inspiring a budding blogger in me. J