There was a time when a disaster would make producers and their well-wishers extremely circumspect. Those were not the days when a producer would spend a bomb on a 'Gandeevadhari Arjuna' after a disaster like a 'Ghani'.
In 2003, Naga Babu wanted to produce a film with Pawan Kalyan as the hero. A film titled 'Tiger Sitaramudu' was launched with Veera Shankar as the director. Shriya Saran was its heroine. The project was announced before the release of 'Johnny'.
'Johnny', produced by Allu Aravind, became a major disaster. Distributors bought it by spending more than Rs 20 Cr. But the film collected about Rs 7 Cr. This made Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan cautious. They decided to shelve 'Tiger Sitaramudu', whose budget was estimated to be Rs 23 Cr (since it was a big-scale movie to be partially shot in foreign locations).
Upon the advice of his brothers, Naga Babu then decided to make a film that would take much less in terms of budget. 'Gudumba Shankar' was the script that he zeroed in on. The film was made with the same director (Veera Shankar) on a budget of Rs 12 Cr. Naga Babu made profits on the movie, which did a business of more than Rs 16 Cr. But some distributors lost their money.
