Prabhas’s Saaho to Rajamouli’s RRR and Ram Charan’s RC 12 — Telugu filmmakers are betting big on action

Action has always been considered an integral part of mainstream cinema, particularly in southern filmdom. Action made films such as _Pulimurugan_ and the Baahubali franchise widely popular and appealed to audiences across age groups. As southern filmmakers continue to shift their focus on action by willing to spend big bucks, it’s worth mentioning that some of the most anticipated upcoming Telugu films – from Prabhas’s Saaho to SS Rajamouli’s _RRR_ and Ram Charan’s _RC 12_  — are spending major chunk of their budget on action.

The team of Prabhas’s Saaho, which is currently in production, is spending lavishly on action. The makers recently shot an action sequence in Dubai for over 50 days on a budget of whopping Rs. 90 crore. The Dubai schedule featured over 250 crew members — both Indian as well international. 37 cars, SUVs and four trucks were crashed in this schedule

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Talking about shooting for an extensive action schedule in Dubai, Prabhas had told reporters: “We had a plan and we went to action director Kenny Bates two years back. Kenny came to Abu Dhabi for recce and he loved the location. He wanted to shoot everything live. Almost 90 per cent of whatever that we are going to show on screen is real. He wanted to show the real cars. He wanted the real cars to fly. We crashed around 37 cars and five trucks. We wanted everything real instead of going for CGI as it gives a real impact. Generally, you have 70 per cent CG and 30 percent real but over here in Abu Dhabi, we opted for a more real shoot. This will be something that no one has seen before.” International stuntman Kenny Bates, popular for his work on films such as Die Hard and Transformers_,_ has been brought on board to oversee the action in the film.

In an earlier chat with this writer, Saaho director Sujeeth confirmed setting aside a major budget of the film on action alone. “The scale on which it is being made, a major budget will be spent on some extravagant action scenes. Although it will be a commercial outing, we are attempting something new and I would like to keep that as a surprise element.”3

[caption id=“attachment_4630231” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Saaho poster/Image from Twitter.[/caption]

Fresh on the heels of the success of _Rangasthalam_ , Ram Charan is busy wrapping up the shoot of his next film, currently dubbed RC 12, with Boyapati Sreenu. It was recently learnt that producer DVV Danayya spent a whopping Rs 5 crore for the climax action episode of the film. Danayya said that the high-octane action sequence will feature around 60 artists and 500 bodybuilders. “Boyapati is known for his commercial action episodes and the one we’re shooting now will appeal to Ram Charan’s fans. Nearly 500 bodybuilders will be seen in this action scene,” he told Firstpost.

Last year, Mahesh Babu’s bilingual thriller _Spyder_ featured an action episode that was shot on a budget of Rs 5 crore. The team shot on action sequence atop a moving roller-coaster ride and that cost them a bomb. The film’s production designer, Rupin Suchak, had said that the makers spent like never before on action to make the viewing experience for audiences as exhilarating as possible.

In an interview, national award-winning stunt director Peter Hein had said if there’s one genre that really draws the attention of the masses, especially in southern cinema, it has to be action. “Action plays a very pivotal role in bringing the masses to theatres. Be it Pulimurugan or Baahubali, you can’t imagine these films without action.”

SS Rajamouli’s next film, currently dubbed RRR, will be made on a budget of Rs 300 crore. The film, to be produced by DVV Danayya, will feature Jr. NTR and Ram Charan in the leads, and they’ll be sharing screen space for the first time. While the genre of the film is still unknown, the industry grapevine is that the makers will be spending big on action.