Jesus Christ To Narthansala, 5 Telugu Films That Got Shelved

The film business is unpredictable. When it comes to making a film, a lot of factors are considered like production, actors, crew and most importantly, budget. There are times when a film is in its production stage, but it gets shelved due to various reasons. Here is the list of Telugu films which got shelved in the middle of shoot or before it went on the floors after official announcement. Read on.

Narthanasala

The unfinished mythological film, featuring Nandamuri Balakrishna, the late Soundarya and the late Srihari, was a dream project that was announced in 2004. It was shot for a few days. It got shelved after the sudden demise of actress Soundarya in a plane crash. After 15 years, in 2020, Balayya released the 17 minutes of unreleased footage from the film as a Vijayadashami gift.

Satyagrahi

Pawan Kalyan’s Satyagrahi was one of the most anticipated films in 2003, which was inspired by Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan’s Emergency movement. It later got shelved due to unknown reasons. The Powerstar, in 2021, had opened up about it and said that instead of acting it out in a film, he chose to do it in real life.

Untitled project of Ram Charan

Ram Charan’s untitled project, which was supposed to be directed by Koratala Siva, got shelved. Ram Charan was pleased with the script and agreed to be a part of the film. But he got busy with filmmaker Boyapati Srinu’s action drama Vinaya Vidheya Rama (VVR). Post VVR, Ram Charan was once again roped in for RRR, due to which the Koratala Siva project got stalled. There were also reports about financial issues, resulting in the film getting shelved.

Jesus Christ

Power Star Pawan Kalyan’s Jesus Christ was announced in 2010, but was shelved due to budget constraints in 2012. The producer of the film Konda Krishnan Raju thought that the estimated budget was exceeded than expected. The film was directed by Singeetham Srinivas Rao.

Abu Bagdhad Gaja Donga

Abu-Baghdad Gaja Donga was supposed to be a massive Indian-Hollywood project starring Chiranjeevi in the lead. The film went on to the floors in the mid-90s, but unfortunately got shelved after 20 percent was shot due to protest by Muslim religious groups, alleging that the holy papers of the Quran were dipped into tea to make it look like an ancient one. The Hollywood version was supposed to be directed by Douchan Gersi and the Telugu version was directed by Suresh Krishna. The big-budget film’s music was supposed to be scored by AR Rahman.