Mrugaraju (2001)

Construction of a railway bridge deep in the forest grinds to a halt as a man-eating lion picks off workers one by one. Aishwarya, the engineer in charge, played by Simran, needs someone who knows the jungle, and the man everyone points to is Raju, a fearless local guide with a troubled family life of his own. As he tracks the beast, Raju also has to face the people who mistrust him and the wife he has drifted away from. Mrugaraju was an ambitious change of pace for Chiranjeevi, with jungle locations and animal action in the spirit of Hollywood's The Ghost and the Darkness. It struggled at the box office in a crowded Sankranti 2001 season, though Mani Sharma's song "Chai Chatukkuna" became a hit.