Okkadu was released in theatres in 2003. At that time, Mahesh Babu was not a superstar. His career was in a slump phase, actually.
In a recent interview, producer MS Raju revealed that Okkadu was not in demand from distributors. "They quoted low prices, citing the failure of Bobby and Takkari Donga. Gunasekhar, too, had delivered a couple of flops," Raju said. Their low confidence in Okkadu frustrated Raju, who had invested a bomb in the movie (particularly because of the Charminar set). "I decided to release Okkadu on my own, because the quoted rates were not to my satisfaction," Raju added.
Okkadu was made from the profits fetched by Uday Kiran's Manasantha Nuvve. That film earned 14 times its investment. The huge blockubster featured Reema Sen, Sunil, Tanikella Bharani and others. RP Patnaik's songs were chartbusters. Had it not been for that movie, Okkadu would have to be made with finance money and, probably, the Charminar set would have been replaced with something budget-friendly.
