Sujeeth’s Journey: Planned with Charan, Delivered with Pawan

Director Sujeeth debuted with Run Raja Run and grabbed a golden opportunity to direct Prabhas in Saaho. The film, which was released amidst huge expectations, did not do well at the box office in Telugu. Although it generated substantial revenues, the film is still considered a box office failure.

However, it took him more than five years to direct his third film, OG. In a recent interview with Gulte Pro, Sujeeth explained the reason behind such a significant delay.

Soon after Saaho, Sujeeth was supposed to do a film with Mega Powerstar Ram Charan. The actor liked the script and decided to go ahead with the project. The film was planned to be shot in the UK since the film has the country as its backdrop. However, then COVID-19 hit, resulting in them calling off their plans to move forward with the movie.

Right after that, Ram Charan put the project aside and introduced Sujeeth to Megastar Chiranjeevi, who was then planning to remake Lucifer in Telugu. Sujeeth was onboarded, and he started working on the film too. As part of the same, he had an interaction with Lucifer director Prithviraj Sukumaran.

During the interaction, Prithviraj praised Sujeeth’s Saaho, explaining how the film inspired them to build a world in Lucifer. The interaction struck him and gave Sujeeth a reality check that he should create something original and not do a remake. Upon this realisation, he conveyed the same to Chiranjeevi and exited the project.

With nothing working out, Sujeeth moved to Bombay, where Bollywood welcomed him with open arms. With Saaho minting over 170 Cr rupees at the box office in North, Sujeeth is the go-to filmmaker for many star heroes. Eventually, Sujeeth had set up the project and was ready to proceed with the shoot. It was then that he was called to work with Powerstar Pawan Kalyan.

When Sujeeth was approached to do a film with Powerstar Pawan Kalyan, it was not OG. “Since they felt that Sujeeth is strong in technicalities and weak in story, they wanted to do a remake where the story is already there, but I have to make it technically rich,” said Sujeeth, adding that he attempted to convince Pawan Kalyan for an original subject because, at the end of the day, it is something that excites him much.

Eventually, things fell in place, with Sujeeth coming up with the script of OG. Initially, Sujeeth wanted to name the project “Original Gangster” just to hint to the audience that it was not a remake.

Despite Pawan’s busy schedule, Sujeeth had worked hard in shaping up OG, in line with the expectations of the fans. The film was released on Thursday and opened to a good turnout at the box office.