Mahesh Babu's early career: His debut film salary and beyond

Mahesh Babu is a superstar now and is enjoying the top position in Telugu cinema. However, that craze existed from his first film. Many directors and producers competed to make Mahesh Babu's debut film.

Before Krishna made the decision of whom to entrust his son's career to, many offers came. Every two days, someone would ask to launch him by offering a huge remuneration for that time.

Those were the days when the stage was being set for Mahesh's debut as a hero, the son of Krishna. There were a lot of reports in the media as to when his first film's muhurat would take place. Everyone had faith in Mahesh's acting as he had acted in many films as a child artist. Also, being the son of a superstar, there was no doubt about his potential. Producers were confident of a grand opening and distributors would rush to acquire the film. 

However, Superstar Krishna took calculated steps. He arranged the right resources for his son to reach the level he is at today. It is known that Mahesh focused on his studies and didn't act in films due to his age. Offers started coming in around the time his degree was about to be completed in a year. 
 

Almost six producers who admired Krishna and made films with him hoped to get the chance to produce Mahesh's debut movie. But Krishna's idea was to give that chance to a prominent producer.

Superstar Krishna's son Mahesh had many fans even before his launch. Everyone knew that Mahesh was an actor with good ease, perfect timing, and speedy action. He had already proven his mettle in dance and fights.
 

Each producer offered one crore rupees per film at that time, which shows how much faith they had in Mahesh. 
 

As his elder son Ramesh didn't succeed as an actor, Krishna had faith in Mahesh. That's why he considered the first film prestigious and tried for a good combination and a good story.  

At that time, many successors related to the film industry had entered and were entering. Pawan Kalyan, Vadde Naveen, Bharat were trying to establish themselves as heroes. Dasari's son Arun Kumar was about to debut as a hero, and Chalapathi Rao's son as a villain. Krishna's wish that Mahesh should receive more appreciation than everyone else did not go unfulfilled. 

Raghavendra Rao and Mahesh had known each other since childhood and were close. That's why Krishna entrusted him with the responsibility of launching his son as a hero. Mahesh used to call Raghavendra Rao 'Mamayya' on the sets.

However, director K. Raghavendra Rao was in a series of flops before 'Rajakumarudu'. After the classic super hit movie 'Annamayya', the films 'Mere Sapno Ki Rani', 'Srimati Vellosta', 'Love Story 1999', 'Paradesi', 'Iddaru Mithrulu' directed by Raghavendra Rao were disasters. Even though 5 films flopped in a row, Krishna entrusted him with the responsibility of launching Mahesh, so the director didn't experiment with the story.

K. Raghavendra Rao crafted a love story with a simple plot and presented it with his trademark style without creating much hype around Mahesh. For Krishna's fans, he showed Mahesh in a cowboy getup in a few scenes. Also, Krishna appears as Mahesh's father in a flashback.

Bollywood heroine Preity Zinta romanced Mahesh in this film. As Krishna agreed for Mahesh to act in Aswini Dutt's film under the direction of hit director K. Raghavendra Rao, Mahesh's debut as a hero was sensational.
 

Raghavendra Rao was a top director at that time. With the aim of presenting Mahesh to the audience in a wonderful and new way, he used all his experience to plan the film. Keeping in mind Krishna's unwavering following, he incorporated all commercial elements into the film 'Rajakumarudu', which turned to a big hit.