I was going to scrap the Makkhi: SS Rajamouli

He thought of making it as a minimal budget movie with an expenditure of not exceeding R3 crore, made it for over R30 crore and it has already grossed over R130 cr so far in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

He thought of making it as a minimal budget movie with an expenditure of not exceeding Rs 3 crore, made it for over Rs 30 crore and it has already grossed over Rs 130 cr so far in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. But did you know that director SS Rajamouli (inset) was going to put the project in a bin?

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“I had never done animation and after about seven months of production, when I saw the initial work, I was so disappointed and frustrated that I was going to scrap the film. But then I realised that we had already spent Rs 10 crore on it so far, so I couldn’t have put so much money to waste,” Rajamouli, 39, told us while he was in the Capital to promote the Hindi version of the film.

With opening narration from actors Ajay Devgn and Kajol, it hit the screens on Friday. Rajamouli got the idea for the movie from his story-writer father over 12 years ago and it took him two years to bring the project to the big screen. The director doesn’t deny chances of having a sequel to the fly revenge story if he manages to come out with “a great story” but is confident that if a Part 2 comes out, “it will definitely be in 3D”.

Not many know that Rajamouli’s hits Vikramarkudu and Maryada Ramanna have already been remade in Bollywood as Rowdy Rathore and Son of Sardaar (SOS) respectively. The rights to his 2009 period-drama Magadheera have also been bought by Anurag Kashyap. “I’ve only seen Rowdy Rathore so far and I liked it,” he said while praising SOS lead actor Devgn as “the most dependable actor in Bollywood”.