Learning from the past

Director Deva Katta promises that his next venture ‘Autonagar Surya' will reveal another facet of his convictions

From 'Autonagar Surya'

Some directors have reservations talking about their project when it is 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 huge.

Every moviegoer will agree that Prasthanam was an intensely satisfying film with great performances and clearly a director's movie. So will the director give Autonagar Surya the same approach or has he learnt something from the lukewarm 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 that experience.”

The director avers that there is no pressure to repeat the success of

Prasthanam ;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 and other than the constructive discussions there were no creative differences. I simultaneously discussed the story with two or three heroes before it went into production. The main reason why I approached Naga Chaitanya was that he was committed to

Bejawada Rowdeelu . The hero has to be a 16-year old and also a 25-year old; the key element is that the hero has to be a 16-year old for 20 minutes of the story. 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. I don't want to associate with Vijayawada at any cost. There are Autonagars everywhere, I had been to Guntur, Kurnool and the Autonagar in LB Nagar, Hyderabad was phenomenal. It's because of

Rakta Charitra that I started noticing Autonagar. Now the town's name is not mentioned in any part of the story.”

He adds, “Chaitanya pulled it off well, the 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 earlier and talked about their fight for their core value. If there is one thing if you would live or die for, what would it it? Deva Katta as a director has another perspective which I will state through Autonagar Surya; you all will love it. I'm a lot more comfortable with the current cast, there is electricity and magnetism in the artistes and plenty of sarcastic humour that you will enjoy. Also the romantic package with Samantha and Chaitanya will entertain.”