Director Bobby says he will leave a lasting impact in the commercial movie space with actor Jr NTR-starrer Telugu drama “Jai Lava Kusa”, which hit the screens on Thursday.

The film marks his maiden collaboration with Jr NTR, who plays a triple role.

“When Jr NTR came on board, he said this project will earn respect for the entire team. The other person who believed in the film even before we started shooting was composer Devi Sri Prasad, and his faith was a confidence booster. I can confidently say I’ll leave a mark in the commercial league with this project,” Bobby told IANS.

Talking about the film, which is about identical triplet brothers brought together by fate, Bobby said: “Jr NTR jumped at the opportunity when he heard the script.

In the film, the actor plays the characters Jai, Lava and Kusa. Jai has shades of grey and he speaks with a stutter.

Asked if it was challenging to make a film with a star playing triple roles, he said: “When I was writing ‘Jai Lava Kusa’, I was under tremendous pressure because I wanted to get this project made at any cost. When Jr NTR gave his nod, I breathed a sigh of relief because I knew he’d own the project and I don’t have to worry anymore,” he said.

On the experience of working with Tarak, Bobby said it was a delight to watch him work in fully glory.

“He’s someone with immense focus. Once he is done reading the script, he literally transforms into the character. He performs with so much focus and that’s why all his characters are so memorable. He believes in the script a lot,” he said.

“Irrespective of how you change a scene on the sets, he will still effortlessly mould into the character and deliver what’s required. One wrong shot meant we had to shoot the scenes involving all the three characters again. But he ensured we didn’t make any mistake,” Bobby added.

Produced by Kalyanram, the film also stars Nivetha Thomas, Raashi Khanna and Ronit Roy.

Just two days ahead of the release of ‘Jai Lava Kusa’, there is an intense debate going on social media regarding the film’s story line. While a section claims that director Bobby has come up with a brilliant idea of weaving a story around three brothers, creating an intriguing conflict among them and etching a powerfully negative character on the lines of Ravana for NTR, another section claims that the director has simply lifted the story from a Tamil film. And, the insiders in industry agree with the second section.

A Tamil film titled ‘Varalaru’ was released in 2006 and became a blockbuster. Ajith played three characters in that film. Inside talk is that Bobby lifted this film’s story, made a few changes, roped in a star as big as NTR and filmed it as ‘Jai Lava Kusa’. The promos and trailer have already given a vague idea about the story of JLK.

Now, coming to ‘Varalaru’, hero essays three characters but unlike in JLK, they are not brothers but a father and two sons. The brothers getting separated in childhood, confusing others with the help of their identical looks after reuniting are the similarities in the two films.

Father character in Varalaru is a dance master and in JLK we have theatre concept. Whereas the dance master in Varalaru has a physical disability, Jai character has stammering problem. The former becomes a don and Jai becomes a politician in JLK. These are said to be the few modifications done.

The basic story line of JLK looks similar to that of Varalaru. Will the box office result be same? That depends on the treatment and we will find it out in less than 48 hours.