In his most recent interview, producer Bandla Ganesh revealed that Shruti Haasan was brought on board to essay the role of a vendor in the 2012 blockbuster 'Gabbar Singh' only because Pawan Kalyan had suggested her name.

It's known that Shruti was hardly a known entity in Telugu at that time. She was reeling under the impact of two back-to-back failures. "After Pawan Kalyan garu suggested Shruti's name, I told him she doesn't come with a hit track record. To this, he told me both he and I too had had flops," Bandla Ganesh said.

In 2017, Shruti suggested that she owed her first career uptick to Pawan Kalyan. "He could have chosen some other actress. But he worked with me on 'Gabbar Singh'. It changed my career," the 'Katamarayudu' and 'Race Gurram' heroine told IndiaGlitz in an interview.