Bhubaneswar: Top south directors from Sukumar to Krish Jagarlamudi and Oscar fame SS Rajamouli have one common fascination. The ace directors of Indian cinema have chosen south Odisha districts scenic beauty-cum-relevance as exotic film shoot locations.
In 2023, ace director Sukumar has chosen Malkangiri dense forests in the Swabhiman Anchal to shoot the industry hit Allu Arjun starred Pushpa 2 the Rule. The reason the director highlighted for the all-important Malkangiri shoot has been that the dense forest in Odisha’s malkangiri has red sandalwood trees.
Last year, another ace filmmaker of Telugu film industry, Krish Jagarlamudi, has chosen the scenic places of Koraput to shoot his pan-Indian film ‘Ghaati’
With Anushka Shetty in the lead role, the Ghaati story revolves around a women getting enmeshed in the ‘weed’ trade. The top director had shot many scenes of Ghaati in Koraput, as the southern district is known in the country for high ‘weed’ (Ganja) cultivation. Koraput has emerged as the prime supplier of Cannabis (Ganja) to the nation.
SS Rajamouli’s upcoming mega magnum opus SSMB 29, this is not the title of the film, only name of the film project, has after wrapping up the shooting schedule in Hyderabad film city, has resumed its shooting in Odisha’s Koraput from March 6.
SS Rajamouli and his crew, including lead star of the film Tollywood superstar Mahesh Babu and main antagonist and Malayalam actor – Prithviraj Sukumaran – are in Odisha’s Switzerland.
As the Rajamouli film project is a jungle adventure film, the entire crew has been in Koraput for shooting. After completing the shooting schedule here, reports say, the team will move to Kenya forests.
WHY KORAPUT CHOSEN?
The southern district of Odisha has green valley canvas. Referred as Emerald Highlands of Odisha and Heaven of Odisha, the district is the place where earth meets sky. Odisha’s highest peak at Deomali (1672 m) is located here.
As the SSMB 29 is a jungle adventure, the film shooting demands a dense canopy, which could be found in Koraput only.
Koraput has all the ingredients – waterfalls, rugged terrains et al – to have the archlight zooming on it. The forests in Koraput are termed as decorated forests – for hosting the moist deciduous forests. It has the dens green canopy, and at the same time flash the changing seasonal colours, thereby, providing a dynamic visual show.
Most Bollywood movies have their films shot at the pine forests of Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu.
However, Oscar fame SS Rajamouli framing Koraput to Kenya forest for his upcoming global film – SSMB 29, will certainly put the southern district on the world’s tourist map.
ABOUT SSMB 29
SSMB 29 is the name of the film project, Rajamouli is working on. The film’s title is yet to be officially announced. This is a jungle adventure film starring Telugu superstar (the Lion) Mahesh Babu, Rajamouli himself has hinted that Mahesh Babu is Lion) (view the instagram post of SS Rajmouli where he holding Nahesh Babu’s passport on a caged lion backdrop just before the star of shooting session.
Priyanka Chopra plays the antagonist role in this film. She has charged Rs 30 cr for her role in the film. Unofficial reports suggest that Nana Patekar may join the project soon.
