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| S.A.Chandrashekar and Narayana Rao on Pooja of Devantakudu |
Producer-Actor Narayana Rao speaks...
I did
Chattaaniki Kallu Levu (30.10.'81) with S.A. Chandrasekhar in the past and with that film's success, both Chiranjeevi and S.A. Chandrasekhar got busy. When I planned to start a film on Damayanthi Arts banner (named after my mother), I asked Chiranjeevi for his dates. He agreed to do it without even listening to the story, thanks to his confidence in me. S.A. Chandrasekhar was doing a Kannada film titled
Geluvu Nannade (1983) with Ambarish and Kannada Prabhakar in the lead. When I met him in Bangalore during the film's making, he narrated the film's story to me. I liked the basic idea of the movie and bought the Telugu remake rights for the film. The Kannada version came to theaters even before the Telugu version started shooting, and it was declared a flop very soon! Chandrasekhar suggested that we should go with another story, since the Kannada original failed miserably. But I liked the story, and thus so I sat with Thotapalli Madhu and Siva Nageswara Rao to incorporate changes in the story. Both Ambarish and Prabhakar were heroes in the Kannada version, but we changed that in Telugu. Thotapalli Madhu was a play-writer at that time. I watched his play in Vijayawada once. I gave him the offer of
Devanthakudu when we chanced to meet and when I learnt he was looking for an opportunity.
Vijayashanti was just an upcoming heroine at that time, and current-day producer A.M. Rathnam worked as her makeup man and also looked after her dates. She did the role of my sister in the film
Pelli Chesi Choopistaam (1983, made on Sri Ramana Chitra banner, with Chandramohan in the lead). I liked her performance in that film and offered her the heroine role in
Devanthakudu. That was the first film for her as the main heroine with Chiranjeevi; she was his second heroine in
Sangharshana. ...Silk Smitha actually liked parallel films such as
Chilakamma Cheppindi or
Oka Oori Katha and discussed such films with me. She wanted to do such roles in films, but she unfortunately never got to realize her dream! Unlike others, she never posed any problems to me during the shooting.
We started the film in the end of October '83. The talkie part was completed in 22 days in Hyderabad; most of the film was shot in Sarathi Studios and Hyderabad Public School. All the cast were accommodated in Hotel Ashoka. The song
chellemmaki peLLanTa... was also shot in the same schedule. It didn't have any complicated dance steps for Chiranjeevi since he just suffered a ligament tear from the shooting for
Sangharshana; he had to go to London to get treated for the same. Even though we completed the talkie part, we thus had to wait for almost five months to complete the songs. The other songs were all shot in Chennai. The movie was completed in 22 lakh rupees. We sold the film all over Andhra Pradesh, but released in Ceded through our (Navayuga) distribution office. The film was a hit and brought profits to everyone.
