Okkadu, the blockbuster 2003 movie, is considered a cult classic. It must be regarded as the third best in Mahesh Babu's career (after Athadu and Pokiri). Even Khaleja comes next.
Okkadu was set in Old City and Kurnool. But when writer-director Gunasekhar originally conceived it, the backdrop was the Hyderabad of 1948. In the late 1990s, around the time of Chiranjeevi's Chudalani Vundhi, Gunasekhar wrote the story of Okkadu as a love story between a Hindu male and a Muslim female in the Nizam era. The atrocities committed by the Razakar Islamist army was the villain of the story. Ramoji Rao came forward to produce it at first. As per a senior journalist, he backed off because he didn't want to court any controversy by producing an inter-religious love story.
Eventually, Gunasekhar reimagined the backdrop. From 1948, the period changed to the present. Okkadu looks perfect as it is. It's impossible to imagine with any other backdrop. From Mahesh Babu to Bhumika Chawla and Prakash Raj, from the friends gang to the Charminar set (which was part of the original conception as well), from Thota Tharrani's work to Mani Sharma's timeless music, Okkadu is impeccable.
