Rajamouli's coup: Ram Charan, Jr NTR turned willing partners

HYDERABAD: Ace director SS Rajamouli planned a 'coup'. To achieve it, he embarked on a secret mission. He was also restless. The bigger he was getting, the bigger he started thinking. He told no one about the plan he had conceived.
He called up two reigning stars of the Telugu film industry home. The two big stars had no clue that the other was also invited to his house. When they met face to face, the stars, who are friends too, were surprised to see each other.
"I have a plan. I want you to think about it and let me know. I am quite aware that both of you, being good friends, would immediately call up one another and discuss why both of you were being called if I had told you that both were being invited," Rajamouli told Ram Charan Tej and Jr NTR.
The two had delivered huge hits. "I have a project in my mind and I want to tell you that I would like to cast both of you in it. Let me know if you would agree," he told them.
Rajamouli had got his big break as a film director through 'Student No. 1' starring Jr NTR in 2001. He did another film with Jr NTR titled 'Simhadri'.
In 2007, he once again directed Jr NTR in ‘Yamadonga’. All the films were a huge success. He also directed Ram Charan Tej in ‘Magadheera’ in 2009.
In the Telugu film industry, unlike Bollywood, stars preferred to act only in solo hero films. Rajamouli was successful in the ‘coup’ that he planned. Both the stars agreed to work together. It would be a privilege, they told him.Intersetingly, ‘RRR’ was the working title of the film. The actual title was to be decided later. But there was some meaning to the working title also as it indicatedthe names of all the three with each ‘R’ representing — Rajamouli, Ram Charan Tej, Rama Rao.
As the film progressed, the title ‘RRR’ stuck. It was at a point of no return. That was when another idea was conceived to give each ‘R’ a word to mean something about the film. RRR got to mean ‘Roudram Ranam Rudhiram’ in Telugu and ‘Rise Roar Revolt’ in English. The film took more than 300 days to complete.
The movie was released in Telugu, Hindi and other languages both in India and abroad. The film did not make it to the nominations for the Best International Feature Film at the Oscars but won the Best Music (original song) award at the ceremony held on March 12 at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles, US. On his twitter, Rajamouli reacted with two words saying, “Jai Hind”.
Both Jr NTR and Ram Charan Tej also talked about the possibility of a sequel for ‘RRR’ as Rajamouli is said to be giving it a thought.