Bahubali: The Lost Legends (2017-) is an animated series set in the Bahubali universe. The series acts as a prequel to the movies, detailing the adventures of the young Amarendra Bahubali (Viraj Adhav) and his obviously evil brother Bhallaldeva (Manoj Pandey) as they compete and cooperate in an attempt to prove themselves worthy of the throne of the kingdom of Mahishmati. Other important characters include unflappable Queeen Mother Sivagami (Manini Mishra), her treacherous husband Bijjaladeva (Mukesh pandey), and the throne's incorruptible retainer Kattappa (Samay Thakkar). The series has original characters as well, most notably Pradhan Guru (Vinod Kulkarni), who is obviously up to something, but I haven't seen enough of the series to know what that is.
Amazon has only two episodes of Lost Legends available for streaming. In the first episode, Riot in Mahishtami, when food shortages and systemic prejudice lead to the death of a government official, Bahubali is charged with dispensing justice while still preserving the city's fragile peace. because Bahubali represents an ideal king, he does this by listening to what people have to say, and in the end he manages to uphold the letter of the law while still striving to make amends for a historic injustice.
The second episode, The Blood Moon, is a bit more action oriented; Bahubali opens an ancient urn, and when a local family disappears, the people assume that demons released by the prince are responsible. Naturally, Bahubali investigates, and discovers that the truth is much more Scooby Doo. This episode is notable for a much more nuanced depiction of tribal peoples than in the actual Bahubali movies.
Bahubali is not the only Indian movie franchise to get a cartoon spinoff, but it's it's much more straightlaced than some of the others. While Little Singham is wooing mermaids and fighting ancient sorcerers at the bottom of the sea, Bahubali is . . . . doing the same sort of things that he does in the movies. The scale is much smaller, though. The Bahubali movies are epics, with massive and deeply improbable battles, stupid vows, gorgeous musical numbers, and queens who SHOUT ALL THE TIME!!!! Cartoon Sivagami is remarkably restrained, and there are a few minor skirmishes and one murder attempt but nobody enters the city via catapult.
That's not a bad thing, though. The quieter tone and slower pace means that the characters have a chance to be fleshed out a bit more - instead of characters telling each other that Bahubali is an ideal king, he gets to show his kingliness on a regular basis. It's not a necessary tie in by any means, but it does expand the universe and fill out the characters.
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