Baahubali’s Kattappa: servant

leadership in practice
Esrafil Ali and Yasmeen Khan

Introduction Esrafil Ali is Research

and Consulting Officer at
The magic of the movies Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion was the Indian Institute of
robust and won the hearts of everyone. The Beginning of Baahubali was a daring movie Management Sambalpur,
when it was released on July 20, 2015, and it set the box office on fire, with huge investment Sambalpur, India.
in crores. With the movie and its sequel too, filmmaker SS Rajamouli channeled his favorite Yasmeen Khan is
childhood read, Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) Comics, and a few broad strokes from the epics Assistant Professor at the
Lal Bahadur Shastri
Ramayana and Mahabharata. He spoke of his fascination for ACK[1]. Baahubali 2 was
Institute of Management
released on April 28, 2017 in over 9,000 screens worldwide, including over 6,500 in India.
and Technology, Bareilly,
It reportedly took Rs 500 crore already twice the budget, mostly from theatrical rights. India.
Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion were both made on a
combined budget of Rs 250 crores. Baahubali 2 set some of the highest records in
terms of advance booking ever, opening day occupancy ever, opening day of 2017,
opening day gross ever, opening day collection by a Hindi-dubbed film, collections
through the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam versions on Day 1, Day 2 collection ever. The
movie had the largest screen count on opening day occupancy of 2017, fastest to enter
the 100 Crore club, first Indian film to top Thursday night preview charts in America and
biggest Day 2 of 2017[2].
The lead actors in the movies were Prabhas as Amarendra Baahubali, Rana Daggubati as
Bhallaladeva, Ramya Krishnan as Shivagami, Sathyaraj as Kattappa, Anushka Shetty as
Devasena, Prabhas as Mahendra Baahubali (in a dual role), Tamannaa as Avantika and
Nasser as Bijjaladeva (Please see Exhibit 1 for details of characters and their role).
SS Rajamouli, director of the movies Baahubali, had crafted perfect leadership qualities in
Shivagami, Baahubali and Kattappa. Shivagami, the wise ruler of Mahishmati was clever at
strategy, strong and clear in her views, fair in ensuring success. She did not succumb to
nepotism or allow her son Bhallaladeva to become the king. She wanted Amarendra This case has been written on
Baabhubali to become the king as he was more valorous, had more wisdom and was the basis of public sources
only. Therefore, the
popular among the people[3]. As a leader, she taught both her sons politics and ethics interpretation and
perspectives presented in this
(Please refer Exhibit 2 for Movie Story). case are not necessarily true
for any of its characters.
Baahubali was seen as an authentic leader for Mahishmati. He absorbed the humanity and
Disclaimer. This case is written
the heart of the teachings from her mother. He believed in values and used to act on those solely for educational
values. He saved many lives during war. His approach toward leadership and kingship was purposes and is not intended
to represent successful or
different. unsuccessful managerial
decision-making. The authors
Kattappa was the king’s royal slave and a servant of the Mahishmati kingdom. He was like may have disguised names;
financial and other
a guru for Amarendra Baahubali. As a leader, he always tried to save the kingdom at any recognizable information to
cost. He devoted himself to serving the kingdom. protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-07-2017-0173 VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018, pp. 1-12, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
 The case revolves around the leadership role played by Kattappa in the movies. The case
illustrates some instances from the movies Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The
Conclusion, which depict the servant leadership traits in Kattappa.

Kattappa: servant as a leader

Kattappa, portrayed by Sathyaraj, played an iconic role of a loyal army chief of Mahishmati
kingdom in the movies. His ancestors had sworn him to obey the orders of the king of
Mahishmati. His love for Amarendra Baahubali was immense. Throughout the movies, he
played a very sharp and focused character. His role as a slave and an agile swordsman
was interesting. He was famous for his immense warrior abilities. Shivagami used to take
the assistance of Kattappa for running the kingdom. Being a loyal army chief of Mahishmati
kingdom, Kattappa had the authority to take decisions which resulted in positive outcomes
for the kingdom. His focus on ethical and modest use of power and arms during the war
with Kalakeyas led Mahishmati to defeat over one lakh soldiers.

Kattappa: exemplifying servant leadership

An authentic desire to serve others for the common good lies at the very heart of servant
leadership. A servant leader is one who inspires others to help themselves. They come
forward to serve and not to be served. In servant leadership, the purpose of leading is to
serve others by working toward the follower’s development and well-being for the benefit of
achieving organizational objectives for the common good (Mittal, 2014a).
“Attributes of servant leadership include credibility, communication, honesty, shared
decision making, leading, appreciation, team building, building society, commitment,
stewardship, persuasion, listening, healing, empathy, awareness, foresight,
conceptualization, developing people, value people, displaying authenticity, integrity,
servanthood, caring, empowering, visioning, goal setting, trust and service” (Duttam and
Khatri, 2017). These traits were quite reflective in Kattappa’s iconic role played in the
movies.
Specifically speaking, a servant leader integrates the ideals of empowerment, participatory
management, team building, total quality and service orientation into the philosophy of
leadership (Duttam and Khatri, 2017).
A servant leader establishes a healthy, diverse and sound organizational culture, as it
heavily rests on trust, relationship building and genuinely valuing people (Bill, 2003). When
Aslam came to meet Kattappa to sell a unique sword at Mahishmati, Kattappa exhibited
polite and supportive behavior toward him (Exhibit 3).
A servant leader is a leader whose principal purpose for leading is to show humbleness to
others, serve others and work toward followers’ development and well-being. When
Kattappa met Mahendra Baahubali (Shiva) for the first time, he recognized that he was the
surviving son of Amarendra. His humbleness toward him was immense. He put his feet on
his head to mark respect for him and his father (Exhibit 3 depicts the above instance).
Leadership plays an important role in leading other people. The servant leader is servant
first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve to serve first. This leading role
could be easily understood by the character of Kattappa which he showed in Baahubali:
The Beginning. During the discussion on war strategies with Shivagami, Mahendra
Baahubali and Bhallaladeva which was to be fought with Kalakeyas having 1 lakh soldiers,
Kattappa, as a leader suggested various winning strategies to Shivagami (Exhibit 3).
People like to follow a person who is competent and demonstrates this in the way he thinks
and acts. This includes functional skills, technical skills, general intelligence or sharpness,
and other decision-making capabilities. This helps a leader to lead from the front (Mittal,
2014b). In the war with Kalakeyas, Kattappa took a lead role destroying thousands of

PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018

opponents from the front. He demonstrated competencies of decision-making, strategic
sense besides performing under pressure. A non-competent leader would not be able to
influence in the long term (Exhibit 3).
Behaving ethically is one of the important aspects of leadership. Ethical behavior involves
demonstrating respect for key moral principles that comprise honesty, fairness, equality,
dignity and individual rights. In the movies, when Shivagami ordered Kattappa to kill
Amarendra Baahubali, he was astonished and thought that the decision was unfair. But
when Shivagami insisted he do so at any cost, he accepted the order. After killing
Baahubali, Kattappa confessed before Mahendra Baahubali that he assassinated his father
Amarendra Baahubali. This depicted Kattappa’s ethical behavior (Exhibit 3).
Most of the people ranked authenticity as the top trait in leadership. People usually want to
follow an authentic leader. Authentic leaders know who they are, know what they believe in
and value and act on those values and beliefs openly and candidly (Robbins, 2009).
Looking at the role and his contribution to the Mahishmati kingdom, what Kattappa did
reflected true caliber and commitment. When Mahendra Baahubali tried escaping Devasen
from Bhallaladeva, Kattappa acted as an authentic survivor and leader and saved
Bhallaladeva from the trap of Baahubali though he was a cunning fellow (Exhibit 3).
Leadership without values has no influence. Values are the beliefs or ideals shared by the
members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Someone
rightly said that “A leader is a dealer in hope”. When Devasena requested Kattappa to carry
her new born baby first, as her father was not alive, Kattappa, being sensitive stated that
he would keep him on his head as a mark of respect to him (Exhibit 3).
Vision is the end point of any purpose. Leaders are people who are able to imagine and set
long-term aims giving direction to which organization should move forward. Kattappa was
the person, who certainly figured out where Mahishmati kingdom was at present, where it
would go in future and who was going to be the future king of the empire. These traits could
be traced from the incident when Bhallaladeva gave Kattappa two choices – either save
Shiva and Devasena or save Baahubali. Kattappa killed Baahubali and saved Baahubali’s
son, Shiva and Devasena as the future ruler of Mahishmati kingdom. He knew that if he
would kill Shiva and Devasena, the realm was definitely going to be ruined by Bhallaladeva
(Exhibit 3).
Influence and persuasion are two important characteristics of leadership which if not
handled properly will affect the situations. During the revenge war with Bhallaladeva,
Kattappa persuaded Mahendra Baahubali to think strategically like Amarendra, his father
and not to make decisions in a hurry. He acquainted Mahendra with the mental pain and
agony of her mother which she had carried for 25 years (Exhibit 3).
Trust is one of the important features in the leadership role. Trust means to have faith in
someone with full honesty and integrity. Trust breeds trust. Deceptive behavior will not
inspire trust. Bijjaladeva tried to brainwash Kattappa to kill Mahendra when the war was
going on. But the trust and association with Baahubali did not permit Kattappa to do so
even though his forefathers pledged of their allegiance to protect and defend the throne of
Mahishmati and their duty to be loyal to the king (Exhibit 3).
Empowerment in leadership is about sharing of power and finds its roots in a participative
style of leadership. Empowering leaders work on self, others and systems. Empowerment
unleashes a person’s talents, skills and experience. Kattappa used to take a lead role with
strong feelings of responsibility when war took place between Baahubali and Bhallaladeva.
He extended his full support, paying attention to resources and technical support during
urgency. He motivated his followers and inspired commitment by instilling vision among the
soldiers. He raised the confidence level of his followers during war (Exhibit 3).

VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 3

 Altruism means willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in
disadvantage. Kattappa confessed his guilt before Shivagami about the confusion created
when Shivagami sent a proposal for marriage to Devasena with Bhallaladeva, but he
misinterpreted it as Baahubali’s engagement with Devasena (Exhibit 3).

Today’s organizational scenario

Servant leadership contributes to the winning culture for an organization. It comes alive
when mutual trust exists between leaders and followers. When soldiers know their leaders
have their support, they will do anything for them. In today’s business world, organizations
Keywords: choose to use a servant leadership model because it represents the highest commitment
Employee attitudes, of management to the employees. Servant leadership is fundamentally different from the
Employee behaviour, employee-oriented leadership styles such as transformation leadership or considerate
Empowerment, leadership. In servant leadership, the leader’s top priority is to serve the needs of
Human resource the followers. In India, leaders such as Anna Hazare, Raghuram Rajan and Narendra Modi
management are adopting the practice of the servant leadership model for achieving goals.

Notes
1. “Amar Cliché Katha”, The Economic Times, April 30, 2017.
2. “Indian Cinema’s Biggest Juggernaut”,“ Corporate Citizen”, June 1-15, 2017.
3. “King’s Rule – How Rajamouli’s Baahubali films are clever exploration of the right rule and the rules
to be a ruler”, The Economic Times, 7-13 May 2017.
4. www.filmibeat.com/telugu/movies/baahubali/story.html
5. http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/telugu/who-is-baahubali-what-is-his-story-
baahubali-2-4573926/

References
Bill, G. (2003), Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value, John Wiley
and Sons, New York.

Dutta, S. and Khatri, P. (2017), “Servant Leadership and positive organizational behavior: the road
ahead to reduce employee’s turnover intention”, On the Horizon, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 60-82.

Mittal, R. (2014a), Leadership – Personal Effectiveness and Team Building, Pearson, Delhi and
Chennai, pp. 192-194.

Mittal, R. (2014b), Leadership Traits, Pearson, Delhi and Chennai, pp. 50-51.

Robbins, S.P. (2009), Organizational Behaviour, 13th Edition, International Version, Pearson Higher
Education.

PAGE 4 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018

Exhibit 1. Movie Baahubali’s lead characters and their roles

Table EI
Prabhas as Amarendra Baahubali and Mahendra Rana Daggubati as Bhallaladeva
Baahubali: (dual role) Character:
Amarendra Baahubali Bhallaladeva was cousin brother
Character: of Baahubali and son of
Amarendra Baahubali was the king of Mahishmati Shivagami
kingdom Role:
Role: Bhallaladeva and his father
He was a powerful king and an authentic leader of Bijjaladeva was the opponent of
his kingdom Shivagami. They strategically
Mahendra Baahubali planned and killed Amarendra
Character: Baahubali by the hand of
Mahendra Baahubali was the son of Amarendra and Kattappa. Bhallaladeva was
nephew of Ballaladeva disliked by the inhabitants of
Role: Mahishmati because of his
Mahendra Baahubali was taking the revenge of his antagonistic nature
father’s assassination which was politically planned
and executed by Bijjaladeva
Sathyaraj as Kattappa Ramya Krishnan as Shivagami
Character: Character:
Kattappa was an honor-bound slave to the Shivagami, epitomized the wise
Mahishmati throne ruler in the movies, was the
Role: reigning queen of Mahishmati
He played an iconic role of a faithful army chief in kingdom. She was the near-real
the movies mother of Baahubali.
Bhallaladeva was her own son
Role:
As a king, she was brave and
courageous commander of
Mahishmati kingdom
Anushka Shetty as Devasena Tamannah Bhatia as Avanthika
Character: Character:
Devasena was the love of Amarendra Baahubali and Avanthika, a gureilla warrior, was
also the mother of Mahendra Baahubali the love of Mahendra Baahubali
Role: Role:
Devasena was the lady who took oath and She took an active participation
determined to take revenge with Bhallaladeva for with Mahendra Baahubali in his
killing her husband. She was put in a cage for more revenge with Bhallaladeva and
than decades by Bhallaladeva in Mahishmati Bijjaladeva
kingdom
Nasser as Bijjaladeva:
Character:
Bijjaladeva was Shivagami’s husband and also the
father of Ballaladeva
Role: He was the person behind Amarendra’s
assassination
Source: Case authors compilation

Exhibit 2. Brief story of the movie – Baahubali

Synopsis of the movie[4]

“A Man who can kill a hundred men can be a hero.... but...a man who can save at least one
life is God”. Baahubali is based on the essence of the above lines.
The Kingdom of Mahishmati is ruled by queen Shivagami who is married to Bijjaladeva. She
takes charge of the kingdom when Amarendra Baahubali’s mother passes away during
labour. She takes care of Amarendra like her own son and ensures that he is brought up
with the ability to rule the kingdom one day. Amarendra Baahubali also has a cousin
Bhallaladeva who is Shivagami’s biological son. With two sons and one kingdom to rule,

VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 5

 Shivagami decides to test both her sons. She challenges them to win the upcoming war
against the Kalakeyas and promises that whoever is victorious will be crowned the king[5].
Though it was Bhallaladeva who kills the king of Kalakeyas, Shivagami announces
Amarendra to be the winner of the challenge because of his leadership skills and his ability
to empathize with his subjects. However, what happened after this to Amarendra Baahubali
is a mystery. Except for the fact that the loyal lieutenant of Mahismati, Kattappa killed
Baahubali.
We also know that Amarendra Baahubali fathered a child with his wife Devasena. It can be
assumed that Bhallaladeva, in his greed for the throne tried to kill not only Amarendra but
his son as well. Shivagami, his mother, however, sacrifices her life for that of Amarendra
Baahubali’s son, Mahendra Baahubali.
Mahendra Baahubali, an orphan was actually the successor of the kingdom Mahishmati.
But unfortunately, he was the victim of various political conspiracies. Fortunately, he was
saved by Shivagami, mother of Mahendra. Later on, he was brought up by the tribe of the
nearby hills of Mahishmati.
When Mahendra grew up, he fought against the atrocities of the kingdom rules by
Bhallaladeva. To achieve his goal, Kattappa played a leader role in vanishing lakhs of
antagonists during war.
Source: Compiled from public sources.

PAGE 6 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018

Exhibit 3. Summary of Kattappa’s servant leadership attributes in Baahubali

Table EII
Servant leadership
Instances characteristics Movie

(a) When Aslam came to meet Kattappa regarding the sale of a unique Servanthood Baahubali
sword, Kattappa showed polite and supportive behavior towards him The Beginning
(b) Kattappa recognized Mahendra as son of Amarendra Baahubali and Humbleness Baahubali
put his feet on his head to as a mark of respect The Beginning
(c) During the war strategies which were discussed with Shivagami, Leading Baahubali
Mahendra Baahubali and Bhallaladeva to be fought with Kalakeyas The Beginning
having 1 lakh soldiers, Kattappa, as a leader suggested various
winning strategies to Shivagami
(d) During the war with Kalakeyas, Kattappa took a lead role destroying Competency Baahubali
thousands of opponents from the front The Beginning
(e) Kattappa accepted before Mahendra Baahubali that he Behaving Ethically Baahubali
assassinated his father Amarendra Baahubali The Beginning
(f) Mahendra Baahubali tried escaping Devasen from Bhallaladeva, Displaying Baahubali
Kattappa acted as authentic survivor and leaders and saved Authenticity The Beginning
Bhallaladeva
(g) When Devasena requested Kattappa to carry her new born baby Valuing People Baahubali
first, as her father was not alive, Kattappa sensitively stated that he will The Conclusion
keep him on his head
(h) Kattappa killed Baahubali because Bhallaladeva gave Kattappa two Visibility Baahubali
choices–either save Shiva and Devasena or save Baahubali. So, The Conclusion
Kattappa decided to save Baahubali’s son as the future of kingdom
(i) During the revenge war with Bhallaladeva, Kattappa persuaded Influence and Baahubali
Mahendra Baahubali to think strategically like Amarendra and not to Persuasion The Conclusion
take decisions in a hurry. He acquainted Mahendra with the mental pain
and agony of her mother which she had carried for 25 years
(j) Bijjaladeva tried to brainwash Kattappa to kill Mahendra when the Trust Baahubali
war was going on. But the trust and association with Baahubali did not The Conclusion
permit Kattappa to do so even though his forefathers pledged of their
allegiance to protect and defend the throne of Mahishmati and their
duty to be loyal to the king.
(k) Kattappa took a lead role in the war in which he fought with Empowerment Baahubali
Bhallaladeva. Bhallaladeva was later defeated by Baahubali with the The Conclusion
active contribution of Kattappa
(l) Kattappa confessed his guilt before Shivagami about the confusion Altruism Baahubali
created when Shivagami sent a proposal for marriage to Devasena with The Conclusion
Bhallaladeva, but he misinterpreted it as Baahubali’s engagement with
Devasena
Source: Case authors compilation

Corresponding author
Esrafil Ali can be contacted at: esrafil.ali2016@gmail.com

VOL. 8 NO. 2 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 7