Gambheera, Who Missed Charan & Chiru

Whatever the result of Saaho may have been, fans feel that director Sujeeth shouldn’t have taken such a long gap. After all, it wasn’t as big a disaster as Adipurush. From just the Hindi version alone, it collected ₹170 crores. There was even strong talk in Mumbai circles that just after watching the teaser, Shah Rukh Khan invited Sujeeth to his home. But behind this long break, there’s a story unknown to many. During the OG post-release promotions, Sujeeth shared a few details with our representative.

Even though Saaho didn’t meet the expected result, Sujeeth didn’t lose hope. He got busy writing scripts. One script was finalized with Ram Charan, and the entire shooting was planned in the UK. But then Covid struck, and rumors spread that overseas shoots would be restricted — leading to the project being shelved. Later, through Charan, Chiranjeevi called Sujeeth for the Lucifer remake. Sujeeth worked on it for some time but felt it didn’t suit him. Moreover, he remembered how Lucifer’s original director Prithviraj Sukumaran had praised Saaho. With that, he dropped the project.

Later, Sujeeth got a call from a Bollywood star and shifted to Mumbai for that project. Just when the shoot was supposed to begin in three months, he got a call through Trivikram from producer DVV Danayya, asking if he had any story for Pawan Kalyan. For Sujeeth, who is a die-hard fan of Pawan, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Without a second thought, he said goodbye to the Mumbai star and came back to Hyderabad, kickstarting OG. If Sujeeth had gone ahead with Charan and Chiru, OG might have been delayed. But as they say, destiny has its own way of working things out.