February 05, 2012 Y. Sunitha Chowdhary
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Some directors have reservations taking about their project which is still in progress but Deva Katta is not one of them. He has shown an amazing quality of improving with every story and the difference is clearly not big, but huge. Every moviegoer will agree that Prasthanam was an intensely satisfying film with great performances and a movie of the director. But will the director give Autonagar Surya the same approach or has he learnt something by the luke-warm response at the BO.
Deva explains, "I'm giving this one the same intensity and treatment that I followed for Prasthanam. The producer was an NRI and couldn't encash on the film. Currently I'm focusing on a film and will hand it over to the producer to canvas and handle the release. Yes, I did learn a few things from the pain but not worried anymore."
Had the film's future been different if he roped in popular stars? Deva says it is a hypothetical situation. "First of all, the story was at a premature stage when I approached the big stars, they couldn't see the film by the way it was narrated. I guess I could have gone wrong even if I had a big star cast..the product would have been different and once the product is different the result would have been different.
The good part is everyone are discussing about it, be it the sympathy for me or their enjoyment of the film thoroughly. At the end of the day, the producer got a good value for his banner and we had great openings." The director avers there is no pressure to repeat the success and as as a creator he totally submitted himself and as a director narrated the story once to the hero and the producer.
He adds, "I also gave them the bound script and they went through it, they were confident, made minor suggestions, other than the constructive discussions there were no creative differences. I did parallely discuss the story with two or three heroes before it went to production. The main reason why I had approached Naga Chaitanya was that he was committed to Bejawada Rowdeelu.
In the initial draft I wanted the story to be in Vijayawada, later I took Vijayawada out of my mind and it became a totally different story..the hero has to be a 16 year old and a 25 year old..the key element is that the hero has to be a 16 year in 20 minutes of the story. I don't want to associate with Vijayawada at any cost.
There are Autonagar's everywhere, I had been to Guntur, Kurnool and the Autonagar in LB Nagar, Hyderabad was phenomenal. It's because of Rakta Charitra I started noticing Auto Nagar but now offcially the town's name is not mentioned in any part of the story."
He adds, "Chaitanya had pulled it off well, last few of his films were creative failures, and Chaitanya has nothing to do with it. He has done the film with 100 percent conviction. Prasthanam was a drama, this one is a about dignity of labour, there have been inspirational films that came a while back and talked about their fight for their core value.
If there is one thing you would live for or die for what is it? Deva Katta as a director has another perspective that I will state it through Autonagar Surya and you all will love it. I'm lot more comfortable with the current casting, there is electricity and magnetism in the artistes and plenty of sarcastic humour that you will enjoy and the romantic package with Samantha and Chaitanya will entertain."
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