The last one week has been filled with multiple speculations about Guntur Kaaram, Mahesh Babu’s upcoming film with Trivikram Srinivas. There was first a rumour that the film’s team was not satisfied with music director Thaman’s work and planned to replace him with Anirudh. While that was mostly unfounded, speculations regarding Pooja Hegde, the film’s female lead exiting the project began to gain traction. Sources claim that as the shoots of Guntur Kaaram kept getting rescheduled and postponed, the dates kept clashing with her prior commitments, which is why she made the decision to leave the project.

In the latest round of speculations to rock this project, sources claim that Sreeleela, who was roped in as the second female lead, has been cast in Pooja’s role, while Meenakshi Chaudhary, who has featured in films like Khiladi and HIT 2 will be essaying the role Sreeleela was originally signed on to play.

Since the film is scheduled to release for Sankranti 2024, and the makers express no intention to let go of a festival release window despite major casting overhauls — Guntur Kaaram will commence a fresh schedule on June 24, where scenes involving Mahesh Babu along with character actors Eswari Rao and Raghu Babu will be shot within an indoor set. The makers apparently intend to shoot the film without any significant breaks till October-end and release the film on the originally intended release date of January 13.