Allu Arjun plays the titular character Pushpa Raj, a red-sanders smuggler, and sported a bearded look for his role in the film. The film's title Pushpa was officially announced on 8 April 2020, on the occasion of Allu Arjun's birthday and a poster was also released. Resul Pookutty is signed for the film's sound design. Karthika Srinivas is performing the film's editing, whereas Mounika and Ramakrishna, the art directors of Sukumar's previous film Rangasthalam (2018) were chosen for production design. Polish cinematographer Miroslaw Kuba Brozek, who worked for Nani's Gangleader (2019) was signed for the film. The story was set against the backdrop of Seshachalam forest, located in the hilly region of Tirumala. Since most of the shoot take place in rural backdrop, Allu Arjun was reported to master Chittoor accent for the film, and the makers hired a team from Bollywood to work on his look. Sukumar described the storyline as, "the red sanders heist in the hills of Andhra is a convoluted nexus that unfurls in the course of the narrative through a coolie-turned-smuggler." He personally went for location scouting across Nallamala Forest as the film is set in Rayalaseema and Nellore and the plot revolves around red sanders smuggling.
The actor instead signed his next project with Anil Ravipudi titled as Sarileru Neekevvaru, whereas Sukumar approached Allu Arjun for his next marking his reunion with the director after a decade since Arya 2 (2009), Mythri Movie Makers which earlier associated with Babu and Sukumar's project also agreed to produce the venture. The film was expected to begin in January 2019, but, in that March, Mahesh Babu walked out of Sukumar's project citing creative differences, and he confirmed this through Twitter. In mid-April 2019, Mythri Movie Makers, which collaborated with Sukumar in their previous film Rangasthalam, officially announced the project which was tentatively titled as #SSMB26, thus marking their second collaboration with Babu and Sukumar. Babu, who liked the story, gave a nod to the project, and was reported to start the shoot after completing Vamshi Paidipally's project Maharshi (2019). Post the success of Rangasthalam (2018), Sukumar narrated a script to Mahesh Babu, with whom he previously worked in 1: Nenokkadine (2014). Rao Ramesh as Praja Rajyam Party Leader.
Pushpa Raj is a truck driver and a smuggler who trades red sanders smuggling in the Seshachalam Hills of the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh.