Shaakuntalam

In 2017, director Gunasekhar announced a magnum opus Hiranya Kashyapa with Rana Daggubati as the lead. The film was based on the famous historical epic tale of the Asura, Hiranyakashipu. In October 2020, the director announced that the pre-production of Hiranya Kashyapa was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the shooting process of the film will not start in the near future.[18] Later in November, Gunasekher announced the film based on Kalidasa's 4th century play Shakuntala which tells the story of the legendary princess Shakuntala and king Dushyanta.[19]

The cast and crew of Shaakuntalam at the film's launch during March 2021 at Annapurna Studios. The cast and crew being Dil Raju, Hanshitha Reddy, Mani Sharma, Dev Mohan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Allu Aravind, Neelima Guna and Gunasekhar (l-r)

Soon after the announcement, reports suggested that the makers have approached Anushka Shetty for the portrayal of Shakuntala, after her collaboration with Gunasekhar in the historical drama, Rudhramadevi (2015), which did not materialize.

Later in the year, Malayalam film actor Dev Mohan and Telugu film actress Eesha Rebba were approached for the film,[20] with Mohan reportedly playing Dushyant and Eesha Rebba supposed character unknown. In March 2021, media mentioned that Rebba has walked out of the project due to several reason.[8] In March 2021, Samantha has taken her social media to announce that Dev Mohan is officially a part of the project as Dushyant.[21] Veteran actor Mohan Babu was also cast in the film.[10][22] He was reportedly playing the hot-tempered Durvasa Maharishi and Aditi Balan was replacing Rebba in the film.[23] It was reported that both Gautami and Prakash Raj was also featuring in Shaakuntalam.

Reports came around that the director will be approaching Jr NTR's son Abhay Ram or Allu Arjun's son Allu Ayaan to feature in as Shakuntala's son Bharata,[24] but Allu Arjun's daughter Allu Arha is having her maiden debut in this production as said character.[25] Actress Ananya Nagalla and Varshini Sounderajan confirmed of being a part in the film through respective interviews[17] while actress Madhoo also joined the cast.[26]Kabir Duhan Singh also joined the cast to play the role of King Asura.

The film is set in North, in the backdrops of Hastinapur, parts of Kashmir, and the banks of the Himalayas. The makers signed on art director Ashok Kolarath to handle the set design.[27] They also hired National Awardee fashion designer, Neeta Lulla, who also designed the costumes in Rudhramadevi.[28] The pooja and the principal photography of Shaakuntalam was kickstarted on 15 March 2021 at Annapurna Studios.[29] It was revealed that Sekhar V. Joseph and Bishwadeep Chatterjee were also signed on for the cinematography and sound design of the film, respectively.[30]

The first schedule of filming was started in late March with Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Dev Mohan, and Aditi Balan at Annapurna Studios in Hyderabad.[31][32] But due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India, the shooting was halted towards the end of June. During an interview, Gunasekhar has stated that almost 50% of filming has been completed on late June.[33] The shooting will be recommenced during the end of June back at Annapurna Studios, then later in Ramoji Film City.[34] Reportedly, Samantha Ruth Prabhu joined the second schedule of filming along with Dev Mohan and Aditi Balan.[35] Several scenes were shot in Ananthagiri Hills and Vikarabad Forests with actor Dev Mohan. Several scenes were shot in Gandipet Lake in July 2021.[36] The filming was finished on the last week of August 2021 at Annapurna Studios.[37]

The visual and graphics department is handled by industry professional Alagarsamy Maayan, with talents from Canada, Hong Kong and China working on the VFX to get the visualisation right. Director Gunasekhar has confirmed that the post production might be longer than 10 months, considering the vision of the director to be met.[38] Samantha completed her dubbing portions in April 2022.[13] She is dubbing for herself in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The makers reported in January 2022 that Allu Arha had completed the dubbing for her role for the film.[39][40] In November 2022 the makers of the film decided to convert the film into 3D.By the end of January 2023 the film was converted into 3D.

Shaakuntalam received negative reviews from critics.[6] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 20% based on 5 reviews, with an average score of 5.5/10.[46]

Khushboo Ratda of Pinkvilla rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Samantha's image needed far smarter writing".[47] Dishya Sharma of News 18 rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated that the film suffers with "Weak writing and undercooked VFX".[48] The Hans India rated the film 2 out of 5 and wrote "Gunasekhar fails to bring enough drama to the proceedings to hold the attention".[49] Sakshi Post gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and termed the film as "wasted opportunity".[50] Raghu Bandi of The Indian Express rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote " The only letdown is this particular subject is hardly the right material for the current generation".[51] Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute rated 1.5 out of 5 and wrote "Samantha tries her best to move the audience, but there’s only so much an actor can do when attempting to stay afloat in a tsunami of bad writing."[52] Sanchita Jhunjhunwala of Zoom TV rated the film 1.5 out of 5 and wrote "Gunasekhar establishes very early on in the movie as to how he intends on taking it forward, but the fact that the movie does not have any plot point that keeps you hooked is one of the many things that works against it."[53] Sanchita Jhunjhunwala of Times Now rated the film 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "This Gunasekhar directorial fails to create an impact with its poor storytelling and VFX that fails to work".[54] Deepa Gahlot of Rediff.com have the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and termed love story of Shakuntala and Dushyant as "So familiar from textbooks, comics, stage and screen versions".[55]