RRR writer says Jr NTR had ‘supporting role’ in the film, believes audience in North ‘assumed’ Ram Charan was based on Lord Ram

RRR writer Vijayendra Prasad said that Jr NTR had a supporting role in the film and this has upset the actor's fans.

New Delhi | Updated: January 25, 2024 09:26 AM IST

4 min read

Ram Charan in a still from RRR.

Writer Vijayendra Prasad, whose film RRR was celebrated globally in 2022 and 2023, has sparked a debate amongst the fans of the film after he said in a recent interview that Jr NTR had a supporting part in the film. Directed by SS Rajamouli, the film starring Ram Charan and Jr NTR was promoted as a two-hero film as both the actors represented the film globally. Vijayendra insisted that both the heroes had a pivotal part in the movie but added that Jr NTR had to play the “supporting role throughout.”

In a chat with Mahaa Max, Vijayendra Prasad said, “I thought they’re both important to the story when I wrote the film. But after I watched it, I felt like people will remember Charan’s character more. That said, it is difficult to play NTR’s role, he did it well. Charan’s character has so many shades to it, NTR has to be efficient in playing the supporting role throughout.”

Jr NTR fans did not like the insinuation that the actor had played a ‘supporting’ role in the film. One of the fan shared on X (formerly Twitter), “After watching RRR, I didn’t feel like Jr NTR had a support character..both had the same importance..maybe the makers didn’t mean it but Jr NTR acted well enough to elate the writing of his character..so it felt like main along with Ram Charan.”

In the same conversation, he also shared that the audience in the north “assumed” that Ram Charan’s character had similarities with Lord Ram. He said, “There are two things that we should consider here. Firstly North audiences assuming Ram Charan as Lord Ram went in favor of the film. We never intended to showcase Ram Charan as Lord Ram in RRR. We wanted to portray Allu Seetharamaraju. The name Ram is a part of Seetharamaraju, and also, he is a devotee of Lord Ram. The audience in the Hindi belt felt as if Lord Ram had come right before them. We never had that thought during the scripting stage. It was a mere coincidence. It was not done intentionally. Why would we think like that?”

He added that since people assumed him to be a version of Lord Ram, this lessened the importance of Jr NTR’s character. “When I wrote the story, I thought people would see Alluri Sitaramaraju in Charan, not Ram. But people up north claimed it felt more like Ram. Now NTR’s Bheem did not have a get-up like that, so people seem to have lessened his importance to the story overall,” he said.

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Vijayendra Prasad had previously hinted that there might be a sequel to RRR set in Africa. “After the release of RRR I shared an idea of the sequel where the story continues with Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (NTR Jr) set in Africa,” he shared with Bollywood Hungama in 2023.

SS Rajamouli is currently working on his next film with Mahesh Babu.

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