n 25 days.

[15] Samantha Ruth Prabhu, the sec

ond actor cast,[3] was signed as the female lead after initially rej
ecting the offer.[16] Rajamouli chose Sudeep to play the fly's human
adversary after being impressed with the actor's performance in Ran
n (2010),[11] and cast rapper Noel Sean as Nani's friend in the
[17] Sudeep drew inspiration for his role as the villain from the 198
3 film Bhakta Prahlada;[18][19] he was portraying a characteed in the late 1990s
when during a conversation with his son,
S. S. Rajamouli, K. V. Vijayendra Prasad joked about a housefly
seeking revenge on a human [8] Prasad later developed the idea as a
script for an English-language film set in 1830s America, in which
an African-American boy dies in an attempt to free his family from s
lavery and is reincarnated as a fly.[9] After completing Maryada Ram
anna (2010), Rajamouli revisited the concept. He wanted to produce a
film that was distinct from any other.[10] He decided to make Eega
a bilingual film in Telugu and Tamil because the script had less dia
logue than others. Each scene including speech was filmed twice, onc
e for each language.[11] The Tamil version, titled Naan Ee was prese
nted by Daggubati Suresh Babu of Suresh Productions[12][d] and was R
ajamouli's directorial debut in Tamil cinema.[14]
For the first time in his career, Rajamouli began casting after the
script was completed because he felt the story required actors who w
ere tailor-made for the roles.[11] Nani, the protagonist, was the fi
rst of the three of the main cast members to be chosen;[3] he comple
ted filming his scenes ir he cons
idered to be a "bad guy" with "grey shades" rather than an antagonist.[19]
The script was doctored by Rajamouli's brother, S. S. Kanchi, [20] wh
ile Janardhan Maharshi and Crazy Mohan wrote the dialogue for the Tel
ugu and Tamil versions, respectively, marking their first collaborati
on with Rajamouli.[21][22] James Fowlds was initially chosen as the f
ilm's director of photography,[23] but due to creative differences an
d scheduling conflicts was replaced by K. K. Senthil Kumar.[24] M. M.
Keeravani composed the film's soundtrack and score,[25][e] Kotagiri V
enkateswara Rao edited the film,[27] Ravinder Reddy was its art direct
or,[28] and Rajamouli's wife Rama worked on the costume design and sty
led the cast.[29]
Production of the film began with a formal launch ceremony on 7 December 2010 in
Hyderabad.[30] The original version was filmed over a six-month period and cost
nearly ?110 million; Rajamouli felt the quality of the material was poor and st
arte