Recently, there were reports going around tinsel town that Mahesh Babu will be appearing in a cameo in Tollywood megastar Chiranjeevi’s 152nd film titled Acharya, directed by Koratala Siva. It was also reported that Chiru’s son and the producer of the film would be playing the role but due to his busy schedule with SS Rajamouli’s RRR, he could not take it up. So, the producer Ram Charan was keen on roping in Mahesh Babu.

Chiranjeevi has now rubbished the reports, stating that Mahesh Babu was never considered for the role. IB Times quoted Chiranjeevi as saying, "I wonder how Mahesh's name popped out in this. I mean Mahesh respects me a lot. I like him too. He is like my son. But he was never considered for that role."

The megastar further added, "Koratala Shiva wants Charan for that role. But he is busy with RRR. We don't know whether he can allocate dates for our film. That will purely depend on the understanding between Rajamouli and Koratala Shiva. We have to wait and see. It is not a guest role but a reasonably lengthy one."  

Initially,  it was confirmed that Trisha would play the female lead. However, Trisha has opted out of the project due to creative differences with the makers. In her tweet, Trisha said that she has realised certain factors seemed “different" than what was "discussed" with her earlier. Later, the makers roped in Kajal Aggarwal, who earlier worked with Chiranjeevi in Khaidi No. 150, as the female lead.

On the progress of Acharya, we hear that a major action block and a song sequence have been filmed so far and the filmmakers are happy with the outcome. With Koratala Siva directing Acharya, fans are excited as he will be teaming up with the megastar for the first time. The film is being bankrolled jointly by Ram Charan under his banner Konidela Production Company in association with Niranjan Reddy’s Matinee Entertainment.