What can Data Scientists learn from Bahubali?

This SS Rajamouli creation has stunned the entire world—highest grossing movie ever in the Indian cinema, cost involved in its making, the grandeur and extravaganza that the film offers, are just a few reasons why Bahubali has become, the most talked about movies of all times. And why not? The movie is studded with all the factors that makes it for a right mix of drama, compassion, action sequences and the rightful end of the bad guy!!! While it has been unstoppable and smashing all box office records, this intricately scripted movie has become an inspiration and can offer valuable experiences across various facets of life. As the entrepreneurs, marketing and finance guys are trying to learn a lesson or two from the movie, we at Analytics India Magazine bring to you few things that data scientists and analysts can take away from this SS Rajamouli magnum opus.

Data visualization play-

Well, to begin with, the movie is all for a visual delight. The VFX that it offers it unparalleled and is definitely the biggest USP for the movie. Right from Sivagami carrying the toddler Bahubali in the fiery water tides to the favorite antagonist Bhallaldeva’s fighting a bison, the waterfalls or the epic war sequence—Bahubali’s VFX has taken Indian cinema to new heights. In a nutshell, we can say that it was the bits and pieces of the movie that when put together, made for an effective and spell bounding visual effects. In the real world too, the bits and pieces in the form of data generated from smart devices, websites, connected technologies etc., can be overwhelming with no meaning if all of these data are not put together in a meaningful way! This is where our business intelligence programs, visualization tools and data analytics come to be of paramount importance to take out meaningful insights from the dispersed data. Just the way movie could have been nothing but falling off pieces without the visual effects, visualization tools have become an indispensable part of the analytics industry. With almost all the industries grappling with growing data, it definitely is a must-have to put it all together in place.

The importance of historical data-

Now comes our favorite, fierce and the stickler-for-righteousness mother from the movie- Sivagami. In the first part of the movie, she is adamant on both his legit and adopted sons to go through series of tests and the one faring well would be entitled with the throne of Mahishmati. The idea was clear—to make them both face the same situations, make a note of their reactions and access their capabilities based on it. In a nutshell, it's the data and its analysis that would help Sivagami to come to the right model (read right king). In a broad context, historical data is the the data collected about the past events and circumstances pertaining to a particular subject. This can be manual or automatically generated data within an enterprise—such as in the form of financial reports, log files etc. With this flood of data available, businesses rightfully turn to analytics solutions to extract meaning from the huge volumes to help improve their decision making. Based on the historical data, enterprises can create the right model for their businesses. The descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics can facilitate in having a holistic view of the market and based on the market requirement can adopt the right model. The descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analysis which use data integration and data mining to answer “what has happened”, “what could happen” and “what should we do” respectively could lead to an effective transformation of raw data to something more interpretable by the humans and hence more conclusive—just the way Sivagami plans to conclude on the rightful heir. The intend is to come with no bias, take the data as it is and create the right solutions.

Sanctity of Data-

Coming to the very unfortunate highlight from the movie— the confusion laid out by Kattappa’s wrong interpretation. Remember the scene where Sivagami sends out sumptuous and resplendent gifts to Devasena in lieu of offering a hand in marriage for his “son” Bhallaldeva? Well, Kattappa assumes it for Bahubali. This confusion not only enrages the already jealous Bhallaldeva but also creates a trail of misunderstanding and hatred between Sivagami and his loyal son Bahubali. Lesson learnt? It is important to analyze and understand every aspect of the data. The huge chaos and misunderstanding could have been avoided if Kattappa considered all the aspects of the situation carefully before reaching a conclusion. The enterprises could be in for huge losses if they face fabrication and falsification of the data. The interpretation gone wrong can affect everything from customer base to creating a bad name for the product. It is important for enterprises to consider that fact that they have collected enough data required to make a sane decision. It gives an important lesson for data scientists and analysts to take the focus away from statistically insignificant pointers or to refrain from omitting important variables, if blunders are to be avoided. Whether taking the top-down approach to data analysis or the bottom-up approach, it is important to make sure that data has been analyzed accurately.