Deva Katta – Telugu filmmaker of ‘Vennila’ and ‘Prasthanam’ fame

Deva Katta is an Indian American filmmaker, best known for his works in Telugu cinema. As a film director Vennila (2005) gave him a major break to Telugu film industry and the movie also received cult status. It was followed by critically acclaimed Prasthanam in 2010 which became extremely popular in international film circuit, and also won two Filmfare awards and one Nandi award. He started off with a short film and a series before he forayed into film industry through Vennila in 2005.

Deva Katta was born in Eluru of Andhra Pradesh into a middle class family. His family shifted to Chennai in 1985 and got settled there. For the same reason Tamil movies influenced him a lot. He completed mechanical engineering in Wayne State University, Detroit, and due to financial obligations he took up a job in US. Yet he never left his true passion of films and enrolled at Detroit Film Makers Coalition to study screenwriting.

A self-taught director, he brought a mini DVD to begin with his experiments and made one short film – The People Mover in 2002. He also did one 18-episode serial called Valasa the following year and also did its editing work. His friends appreciated his work and also recommended his name to film producers. That’s how he got the first break to films through Vennila, which shot him to instant fame.

Deva Katta – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He scripted and directed Bahubali: Before beginning for Netflix.

2. He gave break to south Indian actors – Ravi Varma and Vennela Kishore.

3. His movie – Prasthanam won both Nandi Award for Best Feature Film and Filmfare South Critics Award for Best film.

4. He completed his PG in 1997, and joined a job the same year. He resigned his job in 2009 to fully concentrate on to films.

5. Around 25 investors from US put their money for his debut project.

6. He played a brief role in 2013 Telugu movie, D for Dopidi.

7. His movie – Autonagar Surya was trimmed by 12 minutes after release, due to negative reviews.

8. As per buzz, he is to direct his hit film – Prasthanam in Hindi, with Sanjay Dutt playing the lead role.