Pushpa director Sukumar initially needed to make the movie with Mahesh Babu: ‘Couldn’t make him cool…’

Director Sukumar says that he initially needed to make a movie about Andhra Pradesh pink sander smuggling case with Telugu star Mahesh Babu however the venture didn’t materialise. The filmmaker mentioned he later tweaked the story and roped in Telugu star Allu Arjun, thus creating the two-part multilingual movie — Pushpa: The Rise and Pushpa: The Rule.
The first half, which launched on December 17 in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam, chronicles the pink sanders heist within the hills of Andhra and depicts the convoluted nexus that unfurls in the middle of the narrative of a person who’s taken by avarice. “The story I narrated to Mahesh Babu was additionally based mostly on pink sander smuggling however that was some time in the past. Once I got here out of the venture, I wrote a distinct story. I needed the character angle.
“And with Mahesh Babu, I couldn’t make him cool. He is very fair. So, the backdrop was the same but the story is different,” Sukumar instructed PTI in an interview. Once the Telugu filmmaker started actively engaged on the brand new script, Arjun was the one actor he had in thoughts. The duo earlier collaborated for 2004’s Arya and its sequel Arya 2, which got here out in 2009.

“We (Arjun) have a very good bond and we are good friends. We have worked on Arya and Arya 2. He agreed to do the movie soon after I narrated the idea, he was very excited. And when I completed the story, I went to him again. Also, we started Pushpa’ as a Telugu movie but then with the subject and Allu Arjun being on board, we thought of making it as a multilingual,” he added.
At one level, Sukumar mentioned, he considered making Pushpa as a web-series. “I started researching for a web-series, I wanted to make (it as) a web-series on red sanders smuggling. But then I thought that it is also a very commercial idea and making a movie would be the right thing,” he added.
The filmmaker additionally defined the explanation for splitting the film into two components — Pushpa: The Rise and Pushpa: The Rule. The latter will start manufacturing subsequent 12 months. “It was one complete story first and when we started editing in between, we felt it is better to make it in two parts. We can’t let the whole story come out in a single part. Then I told the producer and my hero about the same and we all discussed it and that’s how things happened,” he added.
Pushpa: The Rise additionally stars Rashmika Mandanna and Fahadh Faasil. In the movie, Faasil is seen as a nemesis to Arjun’s Pushpa, and the director mentioned the Malayalam star was the best alternative for the function, courtesy his power-packed performances in all of his earlier films. “I remember watching Fahadh’s film Maheshinte Prathikaaram and then I started watching almost all his films. I am a great admirer of his work and wanted him to come on board. He is a good performer. He is so fabulous that any director would want to cast him,” he mentioned.
Speaking in regards to the standing of Pushpa: The Rule, Sukumar shared that the script is prepared and capturing is almost certainly to kickstart from February finish or by mid-March subsequent 12 months.  Pushpa: The Rise is produced by Mythri Movie Makers in affiliation with Muttamsetty Media. Meanwhile, put up the discharge of the second chapter of Pushpa, Sukumar mentioned he plans to work with Ram Charan and Vijay Deverakonda on completely different films. The director had earlier labored with Charan in 2018 blockbuster Rangasthalam.
“I will be working with Ram and Vijay on two different films. We will begin work on the script once I am done with Pushpa 2. Both are such good actors, it’s a joy to work with them,” he mentioned.