Director Krish aka Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi says that he has done extensive research on the get-up of Nandamuri Balakrishna's role in his upcoming Telugu movie Gautamiputra Satakarni.
Gautamiputra Satakarni is an epic historical action film. Krish has also written the story and screenplay for the movie. He says that he has put in a lot of effort in finalising the look of Balakrishna.
"The brief was very clear. Gautamiputra Satakarni is one of the greatest rulers in the history of India. And we wanted him to look regal, masculine and authentic," Krish told Hyderabad Times.
"The biggest challenge for us was to make the character look believable. Gautamiputra Satakarni ruled in the second century BCE and there are no records about how he looked. After months of painstaking research we collected data about the kind of fabrics that were prevalent around that time. A lot of effort went into choosing the accessories, jewellery, the throne etc," the director added.
Gautamiputra Satakarni is the 100th movie of Nandamuri Balakrishna. He went through several scripts written by ace directors before finalising Krish's story for the landmark film of his career. The actor is leaving no stone unturned to make the movie a blockbuster success at the box office. He is regularly doing workouts to fit into the role of a king.
"He was very involved in the whole process and worked very hard on his fitness. We shot a lot early in the morning during the outdoor schedules. So Balakrishna would get up at 3.30 am to ensure that he worked out for two hours before stepping on to the sets at 6 am sharp. His dedication was infectious and it rubbed off on the whole team," Krish said.
The makers of the movie have brought ace Bollywood fashion stylist Neeta Lulla on board to design costumes and jewellery for Gautamiputra Satakarni. Neeta Lulla, who has worked on over 300 films, hogged the limelight with 2002 Hindi film Devdas, in which she designed costumes for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit.
