It’s great news that I am working with one of the biggest directors, Prashant Neel, for Salaar: Prabhas

KGF: Chapter 2 was meant to be a 2021 release, which meant that the film was ready a while before that. In fact, director Prashant Neel had even moved on to his next, a pan-Indian film led by Baahubali star Prabhas, bankrolled by the makers of KGF, Hombale Films, called Salaar. The film, which also has Shruti Haasan and Mollywood star Prithviraj in pivotal roles, is rumoured to be based on the concept that Prashant touched upon with his debut film, the Kannada movie Ugramm, which has been reworked to fit Prabhas’ image. Prashant has been shooting the film with his trusted lieutenant, cinematographer Bhuvan Gowda, who began his career shooting portions of Ugramm.

The film, we hear, is about 30-40% done and a teaser is expected to be released by the end of May. While Prashant had already established himself as a commercial filmmaker to look out for with KGF: Chapter 1, the mega opening that KGF: Chapter 2 has got worldwide has industry insiders wondering if that puts pressure on Prabhas, who has not been able to live up to the standards Baahubali set for his career, with follow up films like Saaho and Radhe Shyam.

In an interview with an English daily, Prabhas was asked if KGF: Chapter 2’s being declared a blockbuster puts pressure on him to come up with as big, if not a bigger, hit with Salaar. Surprised by the question, Prabhas wondered why his director’s success would be detrimental for him. In fact, Prabhas said that the fact that Prashant had just delivered a mega blockbuster was good news for him. “We've already started shooting Salaar, so it's great news that I'm working with one of the biggest directors. It's great news. Why is there any pressure? It's a happy thing,” he was quoted as saying.

In fact, Salaar was earlier announced as an April 14, 2022 release, but when the pandemic delayed KGF2's theatrical outing and Salaar's shooting, Yash's film got the date, pushing the latter to 2023, as of now.