Mahesh Babu was the first choice for Varasudu. Vamshi Paidipally first narrated the script to Mahesh but the latter didn’t green-light it.
Mahesh had already been under pressure from fans not to do family films with a CEO theme. So, he didn’t green signal this project despite multiple efforts from Vamshi.
Vamshi then took the script to Vijay and the Tamil hero readily signed it. That is how Varasudu happened.
Mahesh would’ve been under more scrutiny had he done a formulaic family film like Varasudu and he cleverly avoided it by saying no right at first.
Mahesh will soon be seen in Trivikram’s SSMB28 which will be his immediate next release. Post which, he will be collaborating with Rajamouli for SSMB29.