Trivia about Ram Gopal Varma's Shiva

Shiva (1989)
Story
Shiva (Nagarjuna) comes from another town to attend a college where the local goons have been intimidating students. As he tries to take care of them and fight the goons, they become tougher and tougher and in the end, he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Bhavani (Raghuvaran).
About the film:- Debut film of Ram Gopal Varma- The only film in the combination of Ram Gopal Varma and Ilayaraja.- RGV was paid Rs 50,000 and got five percent of profits as part of the remuneration for Telugu version- This was the first film to collect Rs One Crores in Nizam area- The producers distributed on their own in four centers (Nizam, Vizag, and Godavari areas)- Before the film was released, the remake rights were asked for one lakh rupees. After film became a super hit the producers dubbed it into Tamil and sold it for eighty five lakh rupees. The Tamil version Idayam (released on Jan 12, 1990 in 24 centers) collected more than two crore rupees!- The Hindi version costed around 1.15 crore rupees as Ramu wanted to change some scenes in Telugu. Except for the Botany paaThamundi... song, the rest of the songs were used as is from the Telugu version. Only Botany paaThamundi... song was shot separately in Agricultural College in Rajendra Nagar.
Raghuvaran in Siva - The Hindi version was released on December 07, 1990. The film was made in association with Atluri Purnachandra Rao. It did extremely well in Mumbai and Kolkata.- Director Puri Jagannath played as one of the student roles in the Hindi Version.- Rohini dubbed for Amala in Telugu - The film gave life to many newcomers like Chakravarthy, Jithendra, and Naresh, who were rechristened by their character names in real life - J.D., Chinna, and Jagan, respectively! - Raghuvaran took 20 days to study how the dons in Mumbai live before accepting the role of Bhavani. - RGV won his first two Nandi awards for the film, as the Best Debutant Director and the Best Director. - Shiva is the only south Indian film selected for the 1990 International Film Festival held in Kolkata (screened on January 19, 1990 at 8:30 a.m. in Empire Theatre).
LocationShiva was almost completely shot in Andhra Pradesh, with only three days shooting done in Madras. `AanandObrahma...` song was shot in Borra Caves near Araku. The crew even crawled to reach interior locations of Borra Caves, and thus Shiva is the first movie to be shot in such interior-most areas in Borra Caves. For the Telugu version, all the college scenes were shot at Keyes Girls High School, Secundrabad, even breaking the rear wall and erecting a gate there for the opening shots. For the Hindi version, these scenes were shot at A.G. College, Rajendra Nagar. Sudhakar's death scenes were done near Keesaragutta, while Ram Jagan's death scene was shot in Vengalarao Nagar. The cycle chase scene was shot near Somajiguda, behind the present Yashoda Hospital slum area and Yousufguda basti (At the end of the chase, the bus he catches is in Krishna Nagar.) The climax was shot in Swapnalok Complex, while the lift scene was shot in a specially erected set in Venus Studio in Madras.
The hand that holds the cycle chain?Who can forget the famous cycle chain scene in Shiva! There is an interesting thing about it. The promos has the hand of Akkineni Venkat, shot by Gunnam Gangaraju who had Fountainhead Advertising Agency at that time! The same one was used in posters too. In the film, the hand which snatches the cycle chain is Cameraman Rasool's. After the shot, the hand which holds the chain becomes Akkineni Nagarjuna's.