Pushpa

Pushpa is an upcoming Indian Telugu-language action thriller film written and directed by Sukumar. Produced by Naveen Yerenini and Y. Ravi Shankar under the banner Mythri Movie Makers in association with Muttamsetty Media, the film stars Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna in the lead roles, while Jagapathi Babu, Prakash Raj, Dhananjay, Sunil, Harish Uthaman and Vennela Kishore play supporting roles. The film's music is composed by Devi Sri Prasad, with cinematography and editing were performed by Miroslaw Kuba Brozek and Karthika Srinivas respectively. The film is scheduled to release on 13 August 2021, in Telugu along with dubbed versions in Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada languages.[1]

For other uses, see Pushpa (disambiguation).

Pushpa
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySukumar
Produced byNaveen Yerneni
Y. Ravi Shankar
Written bySukumar
StarringAllu Arjun
Rashmika Mandanna
Music byDevi Sri Prasad
CinematographyMiroslaw Kuba Brozek
Edited byKarthika Srinivas
Production
company
Release date
  • 13 August 2021 (2021-08-13)
CountryIndia
LanguageTelugu

Cast

Production

Pre-production

Post the success of Rangasthalam (2018), Sukumar narrated a script to Mahesh Babu, after he worked with him in 1: Nenokkadine (2014).[7] Babu whom eventually liked the story, gave a nod to the project,[7] and was reported to start the shoot after completing Vamshi Paidipally's project Maharshi (2019).[7] In mid-April 2019, Mythri Movie Makers, which collaborated with Sukumar in their prevous film Rangasthalam, officially announced the project which was tentatively titled as #SSMB26, thus marking their second collaboration with Mahesh Babu and Sukumar.[8][lower-alpha 1] Devi Sri Prasad was roped in to score music for the film.[10] In mid-May 2018, a report from The Times of India, stated that the film is a romantic family entertainer,[10] however, at the end of the month, it was revealed that the film is a "crime thriller genre, which has some mind-blowing scenes and engaging moments".[11] Rakul Preet Singh was reported to play the female lead, collaborating with Mahesh for the second time after Spyder (2017).[12]

It was reported that the film is made on a budget of ₹150 crore.[13] Sukumar eventually planned to rope in prominent technicians across the world, with an ensemble star cast which would further escalate the overall budget.[14] In October 2018, an online article based on the film, stated that the film is based on incidents occurred in the early post-independent India.[15] Sukumar stated that the project will go on floors in early 2019.[16] Katrina Kaif was reported to play the female lead in early January 2019,[17] however, she denied her casting in the film, as she didn't sign any films post Bharat (2019).[18] In March 2019, Mahesh Babu tweeted that he exited Sukumar's project citing creative differences.[19][20] The actor instead signed his next project with Anil Ravipudi titled as Sarileru Neekevvaru,[21][22] whereas Sukumar approached Allu Arjun for his next film marking his reunion with the director after a decade since Arya 2 (2009),[23] and the director's regular collaborator Devi Sri Prasad officially announced their association with the team.[24] Mythri Movie Makers which earlier associated with Mahesh and Sukumar's project, roped in to produce the film.[25][26]

Development

Sukumar personally went for location scouting across Nallamala Forest as the film is set in Rayalaseema and Nellore and the plot revolves around red sanders smuggling.[27] He eventually described the storyline as, "The red sanders heist in the hills of Andhra is a convoluted nexus that unfurls in the course of the narrative through a coolie-turned-smuggle."[28] Since most of the shoot take place in rural backdrop, Allu Arjun was reported to master Chittoor accent for the film,[29] and the makers hired a team from Bollywood to work on his look.[29] The story was set against the backdrop of Seshachalam forest, located in the hilly region of Tirumala.[27] Polish cinematographer Miroslaw Kuba Brozek, who worked for Nani's Gangleader (2019) was signed for the film. Karthika Srinivas was roped in to perform the film's editing, whereas Mounika and Ramakrishna, the art directors of Sukumar's previous film Rangasthalam (2018) were chosen for production design.[30] The film's title Pushpa was officially announced on 8 April 2020,[31] on the occasion of Allu Arjun's birthday, with a poster released through the internet went viral upon release.[32]

Casting

Rashmika Mandanna was cast as the film's lead actress,[33] with an official announcement made on Allu Arjun's birthday (8 April 2019).[34] Mandanna in an online interaction confirmed that she will be learning a new dialect for the film, which is slightly based on the accent of Chittoor.[35][36] It was further reported that there will be no romance between the lead actors.[37] Vijay Sethupathi entered in talks to play the antagonist in October 2019, after working with Sukumar in the director's production venture Uppena (2020)[38][39] and was confirmed to be part of the film in January 2020.[40][41] However in July 2020, Sethupathi left the film citing schedule conflicts as he was unable to give dates for the film.[42] Post Sethupathi's exit, Vikram, Bobby Simha and Madhavan reported to paly the antagonist,[43] although the news being claimed as false.[44][45]

Kannada actor Dhananjay was reported to play a pivotal role in April 2020.[46] Jagapathi Babu and Prakash Raj were signed to play key roles in the film.[47][3] In June 2020, veteran actress-turned-politician Roja, was reported to make her comeback in this film.[48]In November 2020, Sunil was cast in a supporting role and was present in the film's second schedule along with Harish Uthaman, Vennela Kishore and Anasuya Bharadwaj.[4][3] In December 2020, Arya was reported to play one of the two lead antagonists in the film,[49] thus maring his second collaboration with Allu Arjun after he previosuly acted in a negative role in Varudu (2010), with Sunil's character was reported to have grey shades in the film.[50]

Filming

In July 2019, the makers planned to start the film's shoot during the occasion of Dusshera (7 October 2019).[51] However, the launch event of the film took place on 30 October 2019,[52] with a formal puja ceremony held in Hyderabad at the office of Mythri Movie Makers,[53] with the film's cast and crew being present at the event.[54] In December 2019, Sukumar performed a test shoot in Kerala's Athirappilly Falls.[55] After Allu Arjun's involvement in the promotions of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo (2020),[29] the makers palnned to shoot the first schedule of the film in Kerala in March 2020, with Arjun joining the schedule, however, the filming was halted due to COVID-19 pandemic in India.[56]

Pushpa is touted to be a 100% "Make In India" project, which is an initiative to provide employment to the workers from the Indian film industry.[57] Keeping in mind the ongoing crisis in terms of employment in the Indian film industry because of the Coronavirus pandemic, the makers of the film have decided not to proceed with the idea of hiring International action choreographers, and decided to hire Indian stunt choreographers from South India who are methodically planning an extensive and elaborate stunt performance.[58] The film has an expensive 6-minute action sequence which will cost the makers around ₹6 crores.[58] Allu Arjun has been trained intensively for this sequence.[59]

The makers later planned to shift the location from Kerala to Andhra Pradesh, due to restrictions in travel, in order to curb COVID-19 pandemic.[60] On June 2020, the makers planned to resume the shoot in Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad,[61] but later planned to shoot the film in Nalgonda, where Sukumar and his team went on location scouting to look for a dense forest in the venue.[62] Post government permitted film shootings with minimal crew, Sukumar decided to resume the shoot in November, with Vizag being zeroed as the location for this schedule.[63] However, the filming was resumed on 10 November 2020 in Maredumilli forest in Andhra Pradesh.[28][64] The filmmakers completed the shooting schedule at Rajahmundry after 14 days, on 24 November 2020.[65]

Music

Sukumar's regular collaborator Devi Sri Prasad was roped in to score music for the film,[lower-alpha 2] and the music session of the film began on mid-September 2019.[67] In a Zoom video interaction, Prasad revealed that five songs were finalized for the film and had started composing the tunes during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19.[68]

Release

On 28 January 2021, the film's release date of 13 August 2021, coinciding with the Independence Day was announced.[1] It is scheduled to release in Telugu along with dubbed versions in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi languages.[69][70]

Controversies

Sukumar and the makers were accused of copyright infringement by Sahitya Akademi Award winning writer Vempalli Gangadhar.[71] In a Facebook post dated 27 August 2020, Gangadhar stated that the story line which is based on red sanders smuggling, was plagarised from his short story titled Tamil Coolie written for a popular magazine.[72][73]

Notes
  1. Mythri Movie Makers, made their debut in film production, with Mahesh Babu's Srimanthudu (2015).[9]
  2. Allu Arjun, Sukumar and composer Devi Sri Prasad, worked together in Arya and Arya 2.[66]

References
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  2. Sify https://www.sify.com/movies/arya-as-the-main-villain-in-pushpa-news-telugu-umzeuwedgaghc.html&ved=2ahUKEwjn8ujZhcvuAhVGwjgGHW8hAqAQFjAEegQIAhAF&usg=AOvVaw0eGFZd3GxfNGjqtG9B5XJh&ampcf=1. Retrieved 11 January 2021. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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