Offers poured in while Ileana was shooting Devadasu. A M Rathnam approached her for Jadoo, while Puri Jagannath wanted her in Pokiri. "I was not too keen as Devadasu had not released and I wondered whether I have it in me to do another film. Manjula (who co-produced Pokiri and is Mahesh Babu's sister) was insistent and coerced me to do it. I felt good as I was wanted."

Did she have any apprehensions about doing a hero-centric film? "I did have but then I thought I could give it a shot."

She says "Mahesh is reserved while I am a chatterbox. He is a decent nice guy who is focused on his work. I learnt to focus more looking at him."

One scene she remembers is the one shot at Golconda fort when the heroine sees the hero fighting and pumping bullets. "Action director Vijayan master told me my expression in those sequences was important and it was so intense that I got goose-bumps. We went ahead for the second take and after that I was completely shaken that I cried for 15 minutes on the set after the shot." Ileana had a blast shooting for Pokiri. "Puri Jagannath (director) is chilled out and very open to ideas."

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