Director Saagar K Chandra: Pawan Kalyan asked me to be responsible while filming Bheemla Nayak

Bheemla Nayak is undoubtedly a big win for everyone involved in its making, right from its lead actors Pawan Kalyan, Rana Daggubati to Samyuktha Menon to Trivikram and Saagar K Chandra. Yet, if one were honest about whom this success would've benefited the most, it's Saagar K Chandra for sure. His growth from his first film Ayyare to Bheemla Nayak has been staggering, to say the least, and the filmmaker shared his happiness about scoring the first ever blockbuster in his career with the media today. 

It was during the lockdown that Saagar was approached by the producer S Naga Vamsi on the idea of remaking Ayyappanum Koshiyum, when they had a conversation about adapting it for the Telugu audiences. When asked if he was ready to direct the remake himself, Saagar had no second thoughts. They spoke at length on the various ways to lend a commercial appeal to the Telugu version and the rest was history.

Saagar called it a dream to work with Pawan Kalyan, that too so early his career. "Our challenge was to shift the focus on Ayyappan Nair's character from Koshi in the original and giving it a larger-than-life aura. The next thing on our mind was to make the screenplay racier and improvise the second half so that we could hold audience's attention beyond the climactic face-off between Daniel and Bheemla," he said.

Right from the beginning, Trivikram had suggested him to not treat Bheemla Nayak like a remake and make it so well that others would vie for the remake rights of the Telugu version. Saagar considers the former his mentor and said that Trivikram was always open to discussions, crediting that it was their collective effort that helped Bheemla Nayak become a blockbuster.

The filmmaker has been flooded with fan calls over the last few days and calls it a crazy experience. On a lighter note, he was surprised how his number was shared to so many of his fans. Top filmmakers like Surender Reddy, Krish, Sukumar have had kind words to tell Saagar K Chandra. In the case of Pawan Kalyan, there was one thing on his mind. "He wanted me to execute Bheemla Nayak with a lot of responsibility and is quite satisfied with the final product, result." The director also added that Hindi dubbed version of Bheemla Nayak will be hitting theatres soon.