Businessman (2012)

Interesting facts

Businessman is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language action crime film directed and written by Puri Jagannadh and produced by R. R. Venkat under the banner R. R. Movie Makers. It is based from a concept by Ram Gopal Varma and stars an ensemble cast featuring Mahesh Babu, Kajal Aggarwal, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Sayaji Shinde, Raza Murad, Subbaraju and Brahmaji. In the film, Vijay Surya arrives at Mumbai with aspirations to rule the city due to his grudge against the corrupt system in the country, but begins to face violent challenges from the cops and his enemies.

Production

Ram Gopal Varma signed Suriya for a multilingual action film titled The Businessman in May 2010, to be directed by Puri Jagannadh simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The film's protagonist was supposed to be a South Indian coming to Mumbai and setting up a crime business using tact and intelligence to emerge as one of the biggest gangsters.

The film was revived later by R. R. Venkat later in January 2011 with a tagline "Guns do not need agreements". He signed Mahesh Babu as the protagonist who worked with Jagannadh in the past for Pokiri (2006). Jagannadh completed the final draft of the film's script on 25 July 2011 during his stay at Bangkok, adding that he was inspired by Ram Gopal Varma. He stated that the pending pre-production work would begin in Hyderabad after a week.

Babu received the film's script while dubbing for Dookudu (2011), but due to that commitment, it took 10 days to finish reading the script. He said in an interview that he could maintain the consistency in the character only because of the fewer working days. Jagannadh did not cast Brahmanandam and Ali because of Babu's specific characterisation; he added that Babu's voice had changed when compared to his performance in Pokiri.

Shruti Haasan was initially considered for the female lead role after her performance in her Telugu film debut, Anaganaga O Dheerudu (2011). However, Kajal Aggarwal was signed as the female lead later in May 2011, marking her first collaboration with both Babu and Jagannadh respectively. She was paid ₹1 crore for this film.

Actress Shweta Bhardwaj was friends with Jagannadh, and he approached her for this song during the film's shoot at Mumbai, saying that the song suited her and her personality as a dancer. She also tried to understand the meaning of the lyrics while dancing. Bhardwaj was afraid of dancing, suspecting a possible sprain, and found the costumes uneasy, but had to continue upon the choreographer's insistence.

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