Anushka Shetty was never a fan of history in her school days. But three years of shooting for the upcoming historical movie Rudhramadevi (based on the 13th Century warrior queen of the Kakatiya dynasty) has her wanting to know more about the days of yore. “Honestly, history in schools is just numbers. I am sure the subject can be put across in a better way. A little more can be done in terms of exploring the life of rulers and dynasties,” she says. “While most of us know about the wars and conquests, we know very little about the emotions of kings and queens. This film does exactly that, and personally, I have developed an interest in the subject,” adds Anushka, who was last seen as Maharani Devasena in the historic fiction film Baahubali .
She, along with director Gunasekhar, unveiled the Rudhramadevi collection, that includes double necklaces, earrings, bracelets, bangles and more, which were inspired by the sculptures of the Kakatiya dynasty, at NAC Jewellers, T. Nagar. The managing director, Anantha Padmanabhan, says that a team was specially designated to visit museums and galleries, and extract designs from the statues belonging to that era, later converting them to the pieces that Anushka is seen wearing in the movie. “The first time the crew saw her adorned in all that heavyweight jewellery, she looked exactly like a queen,” chips in Gunasekhar with a smile.
As it turns out, the Singam actor was the first and only choice for the director. “From the time I decided that I was going to direct the movie, in 2012, I had only Anushka’s image in mind. She has got the right frame for the role of a queen,” he says. “When I narrated the story to her, she was more than willing to give her 100 per cent. I told her clearly, that unlike other movies, there is a lot of work as part of pre-production.”
Anushka trained in sword-fighting and horse-riding for nearly five months. “That was the homework that I had to do. Most of the pre-production work was done by the time I came into the picture. Gunasekhar sir has been researching on the topic for a very long time, and along with an efficient team {Thota Tharani recreated the sets of the era in Hyderabad, Neeta Lulla designed the costumes and Ajay Vincent has done the cinematography} had everything set,” she says.
The idea of this project, which took nearly four years to complete, had been on Gunasekhar’s mind ever since he read a small lesson about Rudhramadevi in his class VIII book. “I remember being inspired by her story. And over the years, it stuck with me. Later, when I came to the film industry, and watched Hollywood movies like Braveheart (1995) and Gladiator (2000), I wondered why films of this genre are rare in India; directors keep making rom-coms, action and entertainment flicks,” he says. After Veerapandiya Kattabomman or Rajaraja Cholan during Sivaji Ganesan’s and MGR’s times in the 50s and 60s, not many historical movies have been made after the 70s, he adds as an afterthought.
So, after completing Okkadu starring Mahesh Babu in 2003, a commercial hit, (which was remade as Ghilli, starring Vijay, in Tamil) Gunasekhar, who has also won the National award for the mythological film Ramayanam in 1998, thought of working on Rudhramadevi. “But no producer was ready to invest in a heroine-oriented subject. I was disappointed, but I carried on researching the subject even as I directed other films. Years later, when Avatar (2009) created a lot of buzz, I thought why not incorporate 3D technology in Rudhramadevi as well,” he says.
He set off to London and Germany to take up crash courses on the technology, but returned to find that no producers were interested. “So, I myself invested in the movie (nearly Rs. 80 crores). I know that it will be commercially very good, but there is only so much I can do to convince others. The audience is always ready for a historical subject; only we directors are not making such movies. Baahubali is a good example,” says Gunasekhar.
