Devara: Part 1

Devara: Part 1 is an upcoming Indian action drama film written and directed by Koratala Siva. Produced by Yuvasudha Arts and N. T. R. Arts, the film stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr. in the titular role alongside Saif Ali Khan and Janhvi Kapoor (in her Telugu debut).

The film was officially announced in April 2021 under the tentative title NTR30, and the official title was unveiled in May 2023. Initially planned as a standalone film, Devara was split into a two-part film, with first part beginning production in 2023. Principal photography began in April 2023, held in Hyderabad and Goa. Technical crew of the film includes music composer Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographer R. Rathnavelu and editor A. Sreekar Prasad.

Devara: Part 1 is scheduled for a theatrical release on 27 September 2024.

Development
In April 2021, it was reported that Rama Rao and Siva would collaborate for NTR30, marking their second collaboration after Janatha Garage (2016). The film was announcement on Ugadi (13 April 2021) with Yuvasudha Arts producing the film in collaboration with N. T. R. Arts. However, Siva's commitments on Acharya and Rama Rao's on RRR had delayed the start of production.

Siva described it as a "large-scale project that has more commercial appeal" in comparison to his debut film Mirchi (2013). Following the box-office failure of Acharya, Siva wanted to fine-tune the script making necessary changes before finalizing it as a draft, which meant that the commencement of filming has been delayed throughout late 2022. By November, Siva started the pre-production works of the film with production set to begin in early 2023.

Initially set to begin production on 24 February 2023, the commencement was delayed due to the demise of Taraka Ratna as well as Rama Rao's participation in the Academy Awards campaign for RRR. The film was officially launched on 23 March 2023 with a puja ceremony held in Hyderabad with the presence of the cast and crew and S. S. Rajamouli preceding with the muhurat shot. The film's title Devara was officially announced on 19 May 2023. On 4 October, Siva announced that the film would be split into two parts.

Casting


The technical crew consist of musician Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographer R. Rathnavelu, editor A. Sreekar Prasad, production designer Sabu Cyril, stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects supervisors Brad Minnich and Yugandhar T.

Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur and Rashmika Mandanna were considered to play the female lead, but turned down the offer. Janhvi Kapoor was confirmed to play lead actress, in her South Indian film debut. At the India Today Conclave, Janhvi described it as a "dream come true" moment on working with Rama Rao as she recalled on how she manifested her debut in South industry through Rama Rao's film in her past interviews. In February 2023, Chiyaan Vikram, Vijay Sethupathi and Saif Ali Khan were reported to play the antagonists. Since the former two denied their roles, Khan was finalized as a part of the cast.

Prakash Raj and Meera Jasmine participated at the launch ceremony, thereby being part of the film. In May 2023, further supporting cast members joined the film with Mani Chandana and Tarak Ponnappa being part of the sets. In June 2023, it was announced that Shine Tom Chacko was cast in the film. Kalaiyarasan Harikrishnan, Narain Kumar, Murali Sharma and Abhimanyu Singh also joined the cast after filming few prelimnary sequences. In February 2024, reports surfaced stating that Shruti Marathe, a Marathi actress, had been chosen to star alongside Jr NTR. Shruti confirmed this during an interview with the Marathi Star Media portal.

Filming
Principal photography commenced on 1 April 2023 in Hyderabad, with Rama Rao in attendance, while Janhvi and Khan joined the sets in mid April. In mid-May, the team took a two-week break following Rama Rao's departure for a family vacation. Filming resumed on 7 June 2023 with few crucial sequences between Rama Rao, Khan and other cast members being shot there and was completed 14 days. Several action sequences had been shot in this schedule, including one which has been filmed in extreme low light. The team then took a brief month-long break, before resuming on 31 July 2023, to shoot an underwater action sequence. Rama Rao trained with expert swimmers from Mumbai for this particular schedule. In September, some of the sequences have been shot at a specially constructed beach set in Shamshabad.

On 4 October 2023, the makers filmed the underwater action sequence at Hyderabad which would conclude the schedule post-completion. The team then moved to Goa, for filming the concurrent schedule on Dusshera (24 October 2023). Janhvi completed filming for her portions on 1 November. The team then took a break to celebrate Diwali (12 November 2023) and resumed filming two days later for another brief schedule. The Goa schedule was completed within 20 November and the team returned to Hyderabad for another brief schedule which was filmed during mid-December. Kalyan Ram revealed that 80% of the film's shooting had been completed by late-December 2023, and the filming would be wrapped by January 2024.

Music
The film's soundtrack album and background score are composed by Anirudh Ravichander in his fourth Telugu project after Agnyaathavaasi (2018), Jersey (2019), and Nani's Gang Leader (2019). This also marks the second time Siva has worked with another music director besides his frequent collaborator, Devi Sri Prasad. Anirudh started the work on the film's music in November 2022.

The first single, titled "Fear Song" was released on 19 May 2024.

Theatrical
Devara: Part 1 is scheduled for a theatrical release on 27 September 2024 in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. The film was earlier scheduled to release on 5 April 2024 but was eventually postponed to 10 October 2024. Later advanced to 27 September 2024.

Distribution
Dharma Productions and AA Films acquired Hindi dubbed version's distribution rights.

Home media
The digital distribution rights of the film were acquired by Netflix.