Madhavan in a still from Saala Khadoos.
director Sudha Kongara Prasad, who spent nearly six years of her life to make the bilingual sports drama, said that she went through "hell" while making the film.
"We faced multiple roadblocks and went through hell to find someone to blindly believe in our film. We literally struggled to get this film made," Sudha told IANS.
However, she approached R Madhavan with the script in 2011 when he was shooting for his Tamil film
Vettai.
"Madhavan said that he would tell me within 48 hours whether he would do the film. Exactly 48 hours later, he called and told me, 'What a script you've written. I'm in.' But I told him that I didn't have a producer and I wanted the film to reach out to people and for that to happen, we should take it to the right people. He told me, 'Sudha, you've given me the best script and see where I take you'," added Sudha. (Also Read:
Saala Khadoos Director on Mani Ratnam and Rajkumar Hirani)
Madhavan was instrumental in bringing his
3 Idiots director Rajkumar Hirani on board, who has produced the film in Hindi.
"Without Raju
ji, this project would have been a small film. Our last producer literally dumped us midway and when things were going from bad to worse, Raju
ji stepped in," Sudha said.
"He's right next to God for me, as far as I'm concerned. I'm eternally grateful, because he sent me a message long back which read: 'You have a great story. Don't worry about anything. I'll do everything in my power to make it happen.' And he made it happen," she said.
For Sudha, who has previously made films such as
Andhra Andagadu and
Drohi, Madhavan was always the first choice for the lead role of the boxing coach.
"I've known him for over a decade and there's this inherent inane arrogance and attitude in my coach, which I thought was always there in Maddy. I've seen that side in him more than anybody. It was far too evident," she said.
Even before the project went on the floors, Sudha spent about three years on research work.
"I met several boxers, coaches and officials from all over the country. Every scene is from the character I've met and spoken to on this journey. There's so much drama in the lives of boxers. It's a contact sport and every day, they beat up people for a living. All these things became the material for my script," added Sudha.
The pre-production and shooting took three more years.
"We started shooting in August 2014 and by November, Madhavan had to go to shoot
Tanu Weds Manu Returns, and we still had six days of shoot. So, he had to get out of his get-up, cut his hair, lose weight, go do another film and come back and finish my film."
"He finished shooting
Tanu Weds Manu Returns by April 2015. He spent the next few months getting back in shape, growing his hair again and joined the shoot only in September," she added.
Saala Khadoos, which also stars newcomer Ritika Singh, will release on January 29. It will also release in Tamil as
Irudhi Suttru.