 Sudeep drew inspiration for his role as the villain from the 1983 Kannada film "Bhakta Prahlada"; he was portraying a character he considered to be a "bad guy" with "grey shades" rather than an antagonist.The script was doctored by Rajamouli's brother, S. S. Kanchi, while Janardhan Maharshi and Crazy Mohan wrote the dialogue for the Telugu and Tamil versions respectively, marking their first collaboration with Rajamouli.James Fowlds was initially chosen as the film's director of photography, but was replaced by K. K. Senthil Kumar due to creative differences and scheduling conflicts.