Revisiting Pushpa: The Rise (2021) - Review + Interesting Facts

Credits 

Banner: Mythri Movie Makers

Cast: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil, Rao Ramesh, Sunil, Dhananjay, Ajay Ghosh, Ajay, Jagadeesh Pratap, Anasuya Bharadwaj, Shatru, Brahmaji, Mime Gopi, Shammukh, Kalpalatha, Dayanand Reddy, Raj Tirandasu, Samantha (SA) 

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Cinematography: Mirosław Kuba Brożek

Editing: Karthik Srinivas

Dialogues: Srikanth Vissa 

Sound Design: Rasool Pookutty

Production Design: Rama Krishna and Monika

Action: Ram Laxman & Peter Hains

Story - screenplay - Direction: Sukumar

Producers: Naveen Yerneni & Y Ravi Shankar 

Release date: December 17th 2021

Interesting Facts

- “The story I narrated to Mahesh Babu was also based on red sander smuggling but that was a while ago. Once I came out of the project, I wrote a different story. I wanted the character attitude.

“And with Mahesh Babu, I couldn’t make him cool. He is very fair. So, the backdrop was the same but the story is different,

• Due to him being busy with Indian 2 replacing Ravi Varma, Rathnavelu couldn’t adjust dates for Pushpa and they went ahead with Polish DOP Miroslaw Kuba Brozek who did Nani’s Gang leader 
• Editor Navil Nooli was replaced with Karthika Srinivas and Ruben after doing Nannaku Prematho and Rangasthalam while Rama Krishna and Mounika were retained as production designers 

Jagadeesh was cast by Sukumar after he watched his performances in the films Mallesham (2019) and George Reddy (2019).[56] In an interview, Jagadeesh Prathap Bandari revealed that he had left 15 smaller projects for working in the film. 

Lots of names at the time were in the news for the item song mainly Disha Patani, but then Samantha who criticized Sukumar’s poster in the past was finally recruited. 

Sukumar said Samantha did hesitate to do the special song initially. 

 But I convinced her, saying that star actresses have been doing it. Pooja Hegde did one in 'Rangasthalam'. I convinced her that she would look great. She said 'no' again. I later called her and requested her to trust me and the title was Ooh Antava sung by Mangli’s sister Indravathi Chauhan and somehow become an nationwide sensation and Samantha’s performance was praised a lot. 

To find the right location, they went to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka literally every forest, finally they settled on Maredumilli till date nobody has covered a movie fully there. 

Speaking in an interview 

The film was shot on multiple sets at Sarathi, Ramoji Film City, Annapurna Studios, and Aluminium Factory. We erected a total of 29 sets in just two months and worked day and night to meet the deadline.

Due to the pandemic, even a forest set was created. A waterfall was created at a bungalow in Jubilee Hills. The scene was to be shot in Kerala but we shifted it here. Looking at the sets, even Allu Arjun couldn’t make out which is real and which one was fake.

Undoubtedly the forest set. Recreating a natural forest was the biggest challenge we faced. S