Mahesh Babu’s Bharat Ane Nenu hit screens on April 20.
While Mahesh Babu’s turns as a Chief Minister in Bharat Ane Nenu has left his fans impressed, the one sequence where he completely stands out is the assembly session scene. By the way, would you believe if we told you that the assembly is a set and not a real-location or the fact that the scene is 13 minutes long and has been shot in one go?
In an interview with TV anchor Pradeep Machiraju, director Kortala Siva revealed that the idea of shooting the assembly sequence in one go came from Mahesh Babu himself. He reiterated that for Mahesh it (shooting a master) is not a task because he loves to do that but for other actors, it can be scary.
“Cut by cut would have harmed the scene. What Mahesh sir said is to master the entire scene. That is his habit. Other actors might get scared to do so. He likes to do a complete scene by heart in one take. Assembly would have the beauty of master. We rehearsed two-three times with the entire cast, from the speaker to other actors who played politicians, just to give it a realistic sense,” said Koratala Siva.
Adding to his point, Mahesh Babu explained how difficult yet exciting it was for him to shoot this assembly scene. “I cannot read or write Telugu. So, they would tell me dialogues and I would memorise them. By god’s grace, I have a good memory. But in this film, there is a difference in language. The political language, the kind of words they use. We do not even know the pronunciation. It was difficult. So, I would constantly ask and question him (Koratala Siva). He would patiently make me understand. It is an honour to do the scene, be the character.”
The assembly set was so realistic that after the shoot, the entire cast and crew clicked a lot of pictures. “After the shoot, we all took a picture. It was an achievement. The artwork by art department was amazing. The set seemed like a real assembly,” shared Mahesh.
Another highlight of Bharat Ane Nenu is Mahesh Babu’s oath as the Chief Minister. The actor, while talking about how the scene was shot and dubbed, shared that his voice reminded him of his father.
“We shot the (oath ceremony) scene in Lucknow. After the shoot, I spoke to him (the director) to be very careful about the dubbing. Cut to January earlier this year, he asked me to do it by myself. He convinced me that it is just a 10 minutes job but it took me one and a half hour. It was an honour to take an oath because those are the words said by some great leaders. When we heard the final take, we were extremely happy. I remember, turning to the director and saying ‘My voice sounds like my father’s voice’ and he agreed. I have grown up watching his films but my scripts have been entirely different. When I sounded like him in this film, it made me really happy,” said the actor.
Mahesh Babu starrer Bharat Ane Nenu hit screens on April 20.