Here's how Ramya Krishnan got Sivagami's part in Baahubali instead of Sridevi

Ramya Krishnan turns 53 today on September 15. She's been a part of several memorable films across Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi languages, but one can't deny that Sivagami in SS Rajamouli's Baahubali franchise was her most career-defining role. However, a lesser known fact is that the part was first offered to Sridevi. How Ramya went on to bag it is a fairly controversial story. (Also Read: When Ramya Krishnan called Kangana one of the finest actors of the country: I love her for being gutsy)

Sridevi - first choice for Sivagami

The story goes like this: Director SS Rajamouli and producer Sobhu Yarlagadda first approached Sridevi for the role of the fierce queen and matriach in the period epic. However, that deal fell out when reportedly Sridevi asked for ₹10 crore as her fees, a full hotel floor for her family and staff, and 10 flight tickets for them from Mumbai to Hyderabad, where the film was shot. "After the release of the film, Rajamouli was seen addressing the same in an interview with regional channel ABN Telugu. He said, “After hearing series of wishes from her (Sridevi), our team got fed up. We also thought that it would be above our budget to meet her demands. Then we approached Ramya Krishnan and she proved herself fantastic and we now feel, we were lucky that we dropped the idea of having Sridevi in our film.”

Sridevi's clarification

Later, while promoting her 2017 film MOM, Sridevi told NDTV Telugu, "But, when you hear such things about yourself, you really get hurt. I don’t know if the producer wrongly told Rajamouli that I made all these demands or there could have been some miscommunication. I think it is not in good taste to speak on a public platform like this,” she said.

Ramya went on to play Sivagami in both parts of the Baahubali franchise, that broke several box office records across the world. The films also starred Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Nasser, and Sathyaraj among others. A spin-off prequel Netflix India series on Sivagami was also in the works with Mrunal Thakur in the titular role, but it was later shelved.