Director Harish Shankar and Pawan Kalyan earlier delivered the blockbuster Gabbar Singh in 2012, which was a remake of Salman Khan’s Hindi film Dabangg. Now, after 14 years, the duo has reunited for their upcoming film Ustaad Bhagat Singh. Since their earlier collaboration was a remake, many assumed this film might also be one.
However, Harish Shankar has clarifies that Ustaad Bhagat Singh is not a remake. Responding to reports that the film is based on Vijay’s Tamil film Theri, the director strongly denies the claims. “Initially, I planned a love story that would be an extension of Khushi, but that idea didn’t allow us to incorporate all the commercial elements we wanted. That’s why we changed the story,” he explains.
He further states that even though the story underwent changes, it is not adapted from any other film. “If you watch the trailer, I have credited myself for the story, dialogues and direction. It is to show that it is my original story,” he says. The director also points that for Gabbar Singh, he had credited himself only for changes, dialogues and direction, since the original story was taken from Dabangg.
The film was initially planned for release on March 26, but the team later advanced the date by a week. Harish Shankar explained that the decision came after the postponement of Yash’s Toxic. “Several distributors requested that we release the film on March 19, as there were no Telugu films scheduled that day. March 19 is Ugadi and the following day is Ramzan, so it’s a holiday period. That’s why we decided to change the release,” says the director.
He also dismisses the idea that the film is competing with Dhurandhar 2. “Both films have completely different storylines and belong to different genres. My film is not competing with another film; it’s a celebration of cinema,” Harish says, adding that he greatly admires the work of Aditya Dhar.
The director also clarifies why composers Devi Sri Prasad and S Thaman were not present at the pre-release event. “We couldn’t complete our work according to Devi Sri Prasad’s schedule. Moreover, there wasn’t enough time to go to Chennai for dubbing and re-recording. So we brought in Thaman to handle the background score. He is currently busy with the re-recording work. Meanwhile, Devi Sri Prasad attended an awards function where he received the PB Srinivas Award, which is why he couldn’t attend the event,” Harish Shankar explains.