Director, writer and actor · Telugu cinema
Deva Katta
Deva Katta movies: 6 Telugu films on file (5 as director, 5 as writer, 1 as actor), 2005–2021. Earliest on file: Vennela (2005). Latest release: Republic (1 October 2021).
- Films on file
- 6 (5 as director, 5 as writer, 1 as actor)
- Years on file
- 2005–2021
- Selected films on file
- D for Dopidi, Autonagar Surya, Republic
- Record
- Q5266407 on Wikidata
Deva Katta is an Indian American film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. He has directed Vennela (2005), Prasthanam (2010), Autonagar Surya (2014) and Republic (2021). Prasthanam was shown in the Indian Panorama section at IFFI 2010 and won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film – South and the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film.
Early life
Katta was born in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, and moved to Chennai in 1985. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit and worked at General Motors as a vehicle crashworthiness expert. He is a naturalised American citizen.
Film school and Vennela
After film school, he made Valasa, a TV serial about Indian students in the United States, shot in 1999–2000. He cut it into a film in 2003, but it was never released. He then made his feature debut with Vennela (2005), a romantic comedy on the same subject with an added love story. He also acted as A.C.P. Krishnamachari in D for Dopidi (2013).
Autonagar Surya
Autonagar Surya, starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha, was shaped by a news report of railway police violence that deeply disturbed him. He described the film as an underdog’s rise from nobody to somebody. Shot from 2011 but delayed by the producers’ financial troubles, it was released in 2014 to mixed-to-negative reviews and later found appreciation on television.
Dynamite
In 2015 he worked with Vishnu Manchu on Dynamite, a remake of the Tamil Arima Nambi and his only remake. He said he shot for just nine days before leaving over creative differences, though he remained credited as director.
The society quadrilogy
Katta describes Prasthanam, Autonagar Surya and Republic as parts of a quadrilogy about society, seen from the viewpoints of a politician, a common man and a bureaucrat. He is working on a final part about the judiciary.
Career on file
Deva Katta has 6 Telugu films on file at Tollywood Desk, dated from 2005 to 2021: five films as director, five films as writer and one film as actor. The earliest of them is Vennela (2005), and the most recent release is Republic (2021). Measured by how many Wikipedia language editions cover them, the best-known titles here are D for Dopidi (2013), Autonagar Surya (2014) and Republic (2021). Other recent releases on file are Dynamite (2015), Prasthanam (2010) and Vennela (2005).
In the films Deva Katta directed, Brahmanandam, Sharwanand and Vennela Kishore appear most often (two films each). Music on three of them is by Mahesh Shankar. Across these films the credits on file name 4 music directors and 20 other credited actors.
Runtime is on file for 4 of them; they average 146 minutes, and the longest is Autonagar Surya at 157 minutes. By decade the list splits into 2000s (1), 2010s (4) and 2020s (1).
Figures come from the films on file at Tollywood Desk and change as records are added.