Ram Charan, not Shankar's first choice

Mega fans got super excited when Mega Power Star Ram Charan teamed with ace director Shankar for his next after his upcoming entertainer RRR with Young Tiger NTR under the direction of Rajamouli.

Shankar is turning it into a pan India entertainer and is planning to cast Bollywood beauty Alia Bhatt opposite Ram Charan. He is planning to cast high-profile actors from across the country in the film which is touted to be a political thriller. Inside talk is Ram Charan will be seen as the Chief Minister in the film.

Inside talk is however Ram Charan was not Shankar's first choice. Shankar was supposed to do this film with Vijay. Rumors spread that Ilayadalapathi Vijay will team with Shankar after scoring a hit with Master. Shankar and Vijay also held discussions but sources reveal that they couldn't get the producer for the project.

This because Vijay's remuneration reached Rs 100crs and Shankar receives over Rs 50crs. Producers should spend a whopping Rs 150crs for the hero and director and the film's budget will be another 200Rs. So Kollywood producers did not show interest in the project. To the top of it, Shankar and Vijay's 3 Idiots remake Nanban despite getting positive talk turned out to be a disaster due to the huge budget. So the makers did not come forward for their upcoming project.

Compared to Vijay, Ram Charan's remuneration is less and at the same time, Dil Raju came forward to bankroll the project on a profit-sharing basis. Thus Shankar's project with Vijay went to Ram Charan. Dil Raju long time back planned to produce Shankar's Bharateeyudu 2 with Kamal Haasan but he backed off at the last minute.