Telugu actor Vijay Deverakonda, who rose to fame with last year’s Arjun Reddy, has started filming his next – a Tamil-Telugu bilingual directed by Anand Shankar of Iru Mugan fame. Titled NOTA, the film’s first look was shared last evening.
This is NOT inspired from true events 😉 pic.twitter.com/HMjXpvXAWz
— Anand Shankar (@anandshank) March 8, 2018
Speaking at the film’s first-look press meet in Chennai, Anand said that NOTA will definitely have nuances of a political thriller. “The film will have political elements, as well as drama. Sathyaraj and Deverakonda play powerful roles and full of depth, similar to what Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek had essayed in Sarkar Raj,” he said.
Speaking about roping in Deverakonda, he said: “The plan started when I watched him in Pelli Choopulu. After that, I waited to see what he’d do next, and that’s when he came out with Arjun Reddy, a game changer. With him, there’s no language barrier, but because of his acting skills, people are ready to watch it.”
Deverakonda, who confessed that he came on board only after learning Tamil, talked about choosing NOTA.
“After Pelli Choopulu, I was getting a lot of offers from the Tamil industry. I said no to them because I wanted to learn Tamil and do it perfectly. Gnanavel Raja, after Arjun Reddy, kept insisting that I listen to the script by Anand Shankar. I had no intentions of doing the film at first,” he said, adding that he met Anand Shankar upon Raja’s insistence.
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“The first time I met Anand, I was shooting nonstop day and night; we met at the hotel and I was unable to comprehend [the narration]. So we met again a week later and he narrated it to me. At the end of it, I said yes. No more thinking, decided to dive straight in.”
The film, bankrolled by Gnanavel Raja’s Studio Green, has composer Sam CS on board. Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran, son of ace cinematographer Ravi K Chandran, is part of the project, as are Thaana Serndha Koottam‘s art director Kiran, and Aruvi‘s editor Raymond Derrick Crasta.