‘A few scenes are still haunting me’: How Vijay’s call to Anil Ravipudi led to Jana Nayagan

The relationship deepened after Bhagavanth Kesari released in October 2023 and became a commercial and critical success. While Vijay was shooting The GOAT in Hyderabad, he called Anil Ravipudi and asked to meet him in person. Ravipudi said the call caught him off guard.

“During the shoot of The GOAT in Hyderabad, Vijay sir called me to meet him in person after watching Bhagavanth Kesari. I was surprised and ran there immediately and spent 15 minutes with him in his caravan,” Anil Ravipudi recalled. “He said, ‘I watched Bhagavanth Kesari. I liked it a lot. You did really well. A few episodes are still haunting me. So I called you to appreciate you.'”

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It was, by Anil Ravipudi’s account, a personal gesture of appreciation from one filmmaker’s work to another. But it planted the seed for what would eventually become Jana Nayagan.

After the conversation with Vijay, Anil Ravipudi spoke to Mahesh Babu about the experience. “Later, I called Mahesh Babu sir and shared the wonderful experience I had. Vijay wanted to remake the film, so I immediately made arrangements to acquire the rights,” Ravipudi recounted.

According to Ravipudi, the Jana Nayagan producers reached out to him specifically because Vijay had responded to certain sequences in Bhagavanth Kesari, particularly the emotional track between the father and daughter. “The producer told me that they need Bhagavanth Kesari rights as Vijay sir liked it and needed to adapt some sequences from it, especially the emotional track, for Jana Nayagan. I was very happy and gave the go-ahead,” he said.

Anil Ravipudi was clear that his involvement ended at granting the rights. “I was not involved in the creative process of making the film,” he said. He also expressed no reservations about the extent to which the original was retained or altered. “Even if only 10% of the original film was retained, I was happy to let them take it. The remake is inspired by certain elements of my film but tells a different story as well,” he said.