Koratala Siva has opened up on how Mahesh Babu's name came to be written in the context of a special supporting role in 'Acharya'. The director's original plan was always to cast Ram Charan in the role. But he was hard-pressed because Mega Power Star's dates were not readily available.

To make the matters worse, Rajamouli's 'RRR' got postponed. This made Koratala wonder if he would be able to get Charan's dates at all. Charan is playing one of the lead roles in 'RRR'.

This is when the director happened to make a call to Mahesh Babu, his 'Bharat Ane Nenu' star. Upon listening to Koratala's situation, the 'Sarileru Neekevvaru' star assured him that he will definitely do the role in 'Acharya' if he wants. This was an impromptu promise that Mahesh made because Koratala was clearly worried.

A few weeks later, however, Rajamouli was in a position to let Charan do 'Acharya'. With this, Mahesh didn't need to do the role and all the gossip surrounding the film came to an end.