11 Interesting and Unknown Facts About Simhadri Movie
As Simhadri got re-released in 4K and IMAX formats on account of NTR’s birthday and also to commemorate its 20th anniversary of it, we are listing all the behind stories, interesting facts, and unbelievable records of SIMHADRI.
1. After the success of Student No.1 (2001), Rajamouli was initially supposed to direct a fantasy film with Kovelamudi Surya Prakash however the project was shelved due to a high budget and lead actor’s debut film Neetho (2002) became a failure.
2. Writer V. Vijayendra Prasad stated that he got the idea for the story for Simhadri while re-watching Moondram Pirai (1982). And he wrote Simhadri’s story for Balakrishna.
3. Rajamouli on how the Simhadri project got locked with NTR:
“VMC banner was making a film with NTR. Initially, they shot some part of the film titled ‘Kurrodu’ and shelved it. Then they roped in Uday Shankar and shelved that one too. That is when I narrated Simhadri’s subject to NTR and he immediately accepted it. Actually, that subject was supposed to be made in the combination of B Gopal and Bala Krishna. It was dropped at the last minute.”
4. Jr. NTR was just 19 at the time of Simhadri. And he is one of the rare young Indian actors who gave such a massive blockbuster at such a young age.
5. Rajamouli mostly selected tunes for Simhadri from Keeravani which are already used or those rejected by other directors. The song “Ammaina Nannaina” was originally used for the film Kishkinda Kanda (1994) and the song “Chinnadamme” for the film Samarpana (1992). “Singhamalai” was used for the film People’s Encounter (1991).
6. Though Student No.1 was a hit, the people in the business circle attributed the majority part of the success to darsakatva paryavekshana of K. Raghavendra Rao. With the success of Simhadri, people started attributing the credit for the success of Student No.1 to Rajamouli. Rajamoli said, ‘It was like tasting two successes with one film.’
7. The movie ran 50 days in 162 direct centers, 100 days in 145 direct centers, and 175 days in 53 direct centers. Incidentally, all these centers were the all-time run records of Tollywood then.
8. The film was on a budget of ₹8.5 crores and collected a distributor’s share of Rs.27 crores. The movie stood as the second biggest hit of Tollywood then. Earlier, the industry hit movie ‘Indra’ collected Rs.33 crores.
9. Meanwhile, all the run and collection records of ‘Simhadri’ were broken by ‘Tagore’in the same year later. However, the silver jubilee record of 53 direct centers has not been beaten by any movie so far and it can’t be broken by any movie in the future as well.
10. The film was remade in Tamil as Gajendra (2004) with Vijayakanth by Suresh Krishna. The film was also remade in Kannada as Kanteerava (2012) with Duniya Vijay. The film was also remade in Bangladesh as Durdorsho (2005) with Shakib Khan.
11. Almost 2 decades after its original release date, it released in 4K and IMAX formats on May 20, 2023, to commemorate its 20th anniversary.
