'Sye Raa' director Surender Reddy has said in an interview that he was emotionally blackmailed into doing a film with Jr NTR when he had committed himself to team up with Prabhas after the success of 'Athanokkade'.

"I wanted to work with Prabhas. Unfortunately, NTR's manager came to me and took me away with him for a couple of days. I was emotionally blackmailed during that period (smiles). He followed me incessantly for three days. Since Tarak is a big hero, I thought I should meet him once. Tarak happened to offer me a story, which was not to my liking, as it didn't gel with my style," Surender Reddy said.

In the event, Reddy made 'Ashok' with Tarak. Years later, they teamed up again for 'Oosaravelli', which was a flop.

NTR's fans are expectedly trolling the director for saying in no ambiguous terms that the Nandamuri actor vied for him. "If anything, it's NTR who ended up losing more than Reddy by teaming up with the director. 'Oosaravelli' was a big setback. Also, NTR Arts incurred heavy losses because of 'Kick 2'," a social media user says.