Gopichand Malineni, who had a major pan-India success recently with the Sunny Deol starrer Jaat, opened up recently about approaching Vijay for a film, and the reasons for the film eventually getting shelved.

In an interview with online portal TeluguOne, the Jaat filmmaker stated, “Immediately after finishing Veera Simha Reddy, I prepared a story and narrated it to Vijay gaaru. He liked it a lot, and okayed the script in a single sitting.” Gopichand further spoke about Vijay’s political plans played a factor in the project getting shelved. He stated, “Right when we are planning to announce the film, when the news of Vijay joining politics became official, people around asked him to choose a Tamil filmmaker for his next project, instead of a Telugu director. He had already done a film called Varisu with a Telugu director, so Vijay gaaru had some pressure from local people to not go again for a Telugu director.”

The director also spoke about approaching Jr NTR for a project after his 2015 film Pandaga Chesuko, where the RRR actor turned him down saying, “This is a very heavy script. I am expecting a more entertainment-driven script from you.”

Gopichand Malineni, who began his filmmaking career in 2010, has made many successful films like Don Seenu, Balupu and Krack.