Godfather preview: Everything you need to know about Chiranjeevi's political drama helmed by Mohan Raja

The much awaited day for Chiranjeevi fans is finally here. After an intense promotional campaign over the last week and a half, Godfather is finally ready to hit theatres on the festival day - October 5 - tomorrow. The Mohalal starrer Lucifer gets a massy makeover in the Telugu version, all thanks to the smart changes by the director Mohan Raja, with inputs from writers Satyanand and Lakshmi Bhupal. Nayanthara, Salman Khan and Satyadev Kancharana too essay crucial roles in the political drama.

The film's story takes off with the death of a political leader, CM TKR and there's tension within the Jana Jagruthi Party about his immediate successor. His daughter Satya Priya Dev is not keen to take over the reins but her shrewd better half Jaidev has set his eyes on it. However, Brahma will make sure that doesn't happen and do whatever it takes to safeguard the interests of the party. Satya Priya, though, is not exactly enthusiastic about Brahma's presence. What's in store for the family?

The team opines that S Thaman's presence for the film was crucial given this wasn't a typical musical with stereotypical song situations and required someone who's inventive to make way for music. The title song and another number - Najabhaja - will only complement the situation in the film. The real fan-pleaser will of course be the Thaar Maar Thakkar Maar number, to appear before the end credits, that also features Salman Khan. Anantha Sriram and Ramajogaiah Sastry have penned the lyrics.

Acharya's art director Suresh Selvaraghavan, cinematographer Nirav Shah, editor Marthand K Venkatesh are among other noted technicians who've worked on Godfather. While Chiranjeevi steps into Mohanlal's shoes (from Lucifer), actors Nayanthara, Salman Khan and Satyadev reprise roles originally played by Manju Warrier, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Vivek Oberoi respectively. Murali Gopy had written the original script for Lucifer that marked the directorial debut of Prithviraj Sukumaran.

Veteran Satyanand had mentioned Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan weren't enthusiastic about the film at a certain point and even considered shelving it. It took the arrival of Mohan Raja to help the project go on floors. "Apart from the party number in the end, the film breaks the conventions of a typical Chiranjeevi film and rides solely on him performance. There's no space for romance, heroism within a tight script and that's why Godfather is unique," he said.

Mohan Raja hailed the assured performance of Satyadev and called it the true strength of Godfather, especially when a character as powerful as Chiranjeevi's needed an strong opponent. He said that Nayanthara, with whom he's doing his third film, added a lot of value to the result. Mohan Raja had worked as an assitant to his father Editor Mohan on the sets of Chiranjeevi's Hitler as well. The filmmaker claims to be a huge fan of Chiranjeevi's films like Arani Mantalu, Donga Mongudu and Gang Leader.

Chiranjeevi felt that he wasn't so optmistic about doing the regular dance-fights-romance routine any more and wanted to do a 'hatke' film that'll challenge the performer in him. Writer Lakshmi Bhupal was there on sets every time the star was shooting for the film, more so as a fan boy waiting to see his idol utter his dialogues. The supporting cast includes Murli Sharma, Sunil, Puri Jagannadh, Getup Srinu, Shafi, Samuthirakani and Brahmaji, to name a few.

It was Ram Charan who suggested Chiranjeevi to take this remake and roped in Salman Khan for an extended cameo. Netflix has bagged the post-theatrical streaming rights of Godfather. The film is jointly produced by NV Prasad and RB Chowdary under SuperGood Films and Konidela Productions. Chiranjeevi's better half Konidela Surekha is the presenter. VV Vinayak and Run Raja Run maker Sujeeth were other names in contention to direct the film in the initial stages.