It was 14 years ago on March 16 that 'Jagadam' had released in theatres. As the film enters its 15th year, Sukumar has said that he would like to remake it with Ram Pothineni as the hero, again.
"As a child, I would long to see people quarreling with each other. Wherever I went to witness a fight, the fight would end as soon as I stepped in. I realized that we have an urge within us to witness violence. There is violence in the jungle. The path to getting food and even love, at times, is laid with violence. It's from this ideology that 'Jagadam' was born," Sukumar today said.
Sukumar had wanted to make 'Jagadam' as his first movie. "After 'Arya', I had a number of love stories. But I wanted to make a film with action as the backdrop."
After watching 'Devadasu', Sukumar approached Sravanthi Ravi Kishore with 'Jagadam' script. "I felt that Ram has got a lot of ease. With the producer saying yes, the project began. Ram was too young back then. He would never say no. Whatever I asked of him, he did it after practicing it for some time," Sukumar said.
By the time 'Jagadam' was over, Sukumar was sure that he will go places. The film had music by Devi Sri Prasad. Each of the songs was a hit.
"The Censor board members objected that 'Jagadam' glamourizes violence. That's why 'Violence is passion' was changed to 'Jagadam is passion'. A lot of the film was censored. Since I didn't know the thinking of the censor board members, I couldn't navigate them. Had the film been released without cuts, it would have been good perhaps," Sukumar said.
Sukumar conducted auditions for 6 months for the different roles. Tagubothu Ramesh, Venu and Dhanraj, among others, were selected.
Finally, Sukumar says, "I have been wanting to direct a movie with Ram as the hero. Actually, I want to remake 'Jagadam' with today's Ram."
