Director Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Shiva’ is one of the most iconic films in Telugu cinema, a project that many filmmakers describe as marking the industry’s “before and after” moment. As the cult classic gears up for a grand re-release, Varma revealed an interesting fact about its origin — that the film was inspired by Bruce Lee’s ‘Return of the Dragon’.

During a recent press meet, when asked about the origin of ‘Shiva’, he said, “When I was in my teens, I was a huge fan of Bruce Lee. A day before Venkat asked me to write a script for Nagarjuna, I watched ‘Return of the Dragon’ for the 15th time. I took that film’s basic idea — changed the restaurant to a college, martial arts to our style fights, and wrote the first draft in 20 minutes. I just added characters and my college experiences.”

The

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