SS Rajamouli has undoubtedly emerged as one of the most sought-after and popular filmmakers in India after the Baahubali films and RRR. He may have achieved pan-India success late in his career but he had been churning out blockbuster hits like Chatrapathi and Magadheera in the Telugu film industry over the last two decades. One of his Telugu films before Baahubali, apart from being a big hit in the Telugu states, had moderate success in the Hindi belt as well. We are talking about the 2012 film Eega, which was dubbed and released in Hindi as Makkhi.
A unique premise that had never been explored in Indian cinema before, Eega was the tale of a man who is killed and is reborn as a fly to avenge his death. Like most of Rajamouli’s films, the story was written by his father V Vijayendra Prasad. The idea for the film originated in the mid-1990s from a conversation between father and duo about how irritating flies are and soon divulged into what if the flies irritated humans for revenge. Rajamouli kept this discussion in mind and he, along with Vijayandra Prasad, developed a script.
Nani and Samantha Ruth Prabhu were cast first before the antagonist was decided upon. Rajamouli had been left impressed with Kiccha Sudeep after watching his performance in Ram Gopal Varma’s Rann and hence cast him as the antagonist.
However, not everyone knows that Rajamouli had decided to give up on the project midway. After just 10 days of shooting, Rajamouli felt dissatisfied with the VFX of the film and made up his mind to shelve the project. However, about Rs 4-5 crore had already been spent on the movie, and the producer insisted that the film be completed, which Rajamouli eventually adhered to.
It was a wise decision as Eega turned out to be a big hit and was even India’s official entry to the Academy Awards that year.