It isn’t surprising that the next big event film is coming from the Telugu industry. Saaho , touted to be made on a budget of ₹350 crore, is gearing up for release on August 30. The film, which has been in the making for close to two years now, has grabbed the attention of the global audience, thanks to its riveting trailer, which has clocked in over 53 million views on YouTube. Ahead of its release, MetroPlus chats with director Sujeeth, actors Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor about what went into the making.
Director Sujeeth
Story over spectacle
Coming to Chennai is like a homecoming for Sujeeth, who says that he grew up in the city for the most part. His directorial debut was supposed to be a Tamil film, he says rather shyly. Sujeeth doesn’t feel the box-office pressure of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion , which made over 1,400 odd crore. For, he remembers the exact date (22 February, 2015) when he shared the basic idea of Saaho to Prabhas. He says that he hasn’t compromised his script at any level, just because it’s releasing in multiple languages. “After my first narration, I had to tweak the script since it had logical loopholes and other issues. I needed some time to refine it,” says Sujeeth, adding that priority was the story and not the spectacle. According to him, Saaho has over 150 set pieces, designed by production designer Sabu Cyril. He remembers the time he met Sabu who was busy with drawing sketches for Baahubali: The Beginning . “We were concerned about the believability factor more than anything,” he signs off.
Prabhas in ‘Saaho’
Shades of Saaho
Prabhas has always maintained a calm and shy demeanour. But the characters he plays on screen suggest otherwise. When he sits down for a group interaction with members of the press, he tries to break the ice with a casual: “Eppudi irukeenga” instead of “eppadi” . Much has been said about how he dedicated over five years for the Baahubali series, playing the eponymous Amarendra Baahubali. After the movie became what it is today, the actor says he wanted to headline a simple love story. “But Sujeeth came up with this script and I couldn’t say no,” he says, adding that Sujeeth initially gave him an overall narration as to how things would pan out, before developing the individual parts of the screenplay.
Whether it is Baahubali or Saaho , when Prabhas takes up a project that is larger-than-life, does it have any effect on his craft? A self-confessed fan of Mani Ratnam, Prabhas clarifies that the character he plays in Saaho is not larger-than-life, like Baahubali. “I’m not a method actor,” he announces, adding, “ Saaho was mounted on a large scale, but my character wasn’t tough to pull off since Sujeeth and I had several workshop sessions before the shoot.” He says that the intention of releasing Saaho in multiple languages was because of the monstrous success ofBaahubali 2: The Conclusion . The original idea was to release it in Telugu and Tamil for obvious trade reasons. “We started off with a budget of ₹150 crore, but then, the stakes became bigger and bigger. In fact, Shraddha Kapoor’s call sheet was for a year,” he laughs, pointing at his heroine who’s visibly clueless, for the interaction was primarily in Tamil.
Prabhas says he could have demanded the salary he wished, thanks to Baahubali which made him a pan-Indian star. But, the actor says he took a 20% pay cut to make Saaho possible. “We spent about ₹80 cr for a 12-minute sequence, which will be the film’s major highlight,” he adds.
Shraddha Kapoor plays a police officer in ‘Saaho’
A safe departure
Saaho , for Shraddha Kapoor, is a departure from the kinds of characters she’s been playing in Hindi cinema. She considers herself the “lucky one” for being part of a multi-lingual film like Saaho . “It’s encouraging that all industries are coming together under one umbrella, to make good cinema. In a way, that helps us in reaching a wider audience,” says Shraddha Kapoor, who plays Amritha Nair, an officer of the Crime Branch.
When Shraddha heard the script, she was bouncing off the walls. “Not physically though, but I was very excited,” she says. Considering Saaho is a VFX-heavy film, what gave her the conviction at script level? “The VFX part comes much later. Like any other script, I was looking for my character — whether I can connect with her. That process is something I loved,” she smiles. It was quite challenging to dub in Telugu, admits Shraddha, “It was tough and exciting at the same time. I had to by-heart my lines each day before the shoot.”
