Concept: A spoof on the popular characters from Devadas , the hero in this story models himself with the legendary character but shows a different mindset. This leads to humorous situations all through.
Director’s take: “Right from his childhood, our hero is inspired by Devadas. He has a childhood friend. For him she is his Parvathy. The thing is that while our Devadas is from the middle class, Parvathy hails from a rich family.
She doles out money to him whenever he requires it. He in turn spends it on Chandramukhis. Yes, we have not one but two Chandramukhis who come into the picture one after the other. The problem is that he loves both Parvathy and Chandramukhi and wants to live with both of them. Again, our Devadas is no weakling like his idol to drink excessively and die. But the Chandramukhis who enter into his life thanks to his friend Bhagawan are not like Sarath’s Chandramukhi whose love was pure and divine. These Chandramukhis are after our hero’s money.
How he realises this and goes back to Parvathy is narrated in light banter.
Tanish plays the hero. Sana, the heroine makes her debut in Telugu like Chandini from Chandigarh and Sujana who are cast as Chandramukhi. Other major characters from the film are ‘Vedam’ fame Srinija as Sakkubai, the harem keeper where Tanish meets his Chandramukhis and Dhanraj as the hero’s friend. M.S. Narayana and Vinod play Tanish and Sana’s fathers respectively.”
Basically a writer who had penned stories and dialogue for television serials, Srinivas turned a director with a Hindi movie and later made films in Kannada. Interestingly, the film in discussion is his first in Telugu.
“I debuted with the Hindi movie, Kal ka Nawab and later made Abhiram and the soon to be released Khatarnak Udugaru both in Kannada. Chakri is debuting as a cinematographer and I knew him since the days he was working as an assistant to cinematographer Sriram. Gana of the Srikanth starrer Satruvu fame composed the five songs.” Incidentally, the film’s producer V.S. Rami Reddy made Satruvu earlier.
Progress: With its shooting complete, the movie is now in its post-production stage at Digiquest studios in Hyderabad. Presented by Kommalapati Sridhar the film is slated for release in March.
Devadas Style Maarchaadu
Cast: Tanish, Sana, Chandini, Sujana
Writer-director: Srinivas Gundreddi
Music: Gana
Banner: V.S.R. Productions