It is the first part of a two-part film. The film was officially announced in April 2021 under the tentative title NTR 30, as it is Rama Rao's 30th film in the leading role, while the official title was announced in May 2023. Principal photography commenced in April 2023 in Hyderabad followed with a schedule in Goa, which was again followed with a one in the former location. The film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography handled by R. Rathnavelu and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.
Devara: Part 1 was scheduled for a worldwide release on 5 April 2024, but has been delayed.
In February 2020, N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Trivikram Srinivas was reported to collaborate for a second film following Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018), tentatively titled as NTR30 with producers S. Radha Krishna and Nandamuri Kalyan Ram under the banners Haarika & Hassine Creations and N. T. R. Arts.[4] Later that July, Koratala Siva announced another project with Allu Arjun in the lead as AA21 and was set to be produced by former distributor Sudhakar Mikkilineni's newly launched production studio Yuvasudha Arts.[5][6] Neither of the projects came into fruition.[a] In April 2021, it was reported that Rama Rao and Siva would collaborate for NTR30 instead with Yuvasudha Arts producing the film in collaboration with N. T. R. Arts; this would be their second collaboration as they previously worked on Janatha Garage (2016).[8] After an official announcement on Ugadi (13 April 2021), the project was tentatively set to release theatrically on 29 April 2022.[9] However, Siva's commitments on Acharya and Rama Rao's on RRR had delayed the start of production.[10]
Siva penned the script during mid-2021, as the production of Acharya delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic before its resumption in September.[11] He described it as a "large-scale project that has more commercial appeal" in comparison to his debut film Mirchi (2013).[12][11] 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.[13][14] By November, Siva started the pre-production works of the film with production set to begin in early 2023.[15]
At the pre-release event of Kalyan Ram's Amigos in February 2023, Rama Rao who preceded as the chief guest for the event, said that the film would be launched in late February with filming commencing in mid-March.[16][17] 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.[18] 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.[19][20] The film's title Devara was officially announced on 19 May 2023.[21][22]
On 4 October 2023, Siva announced that the film would be split into two parts as the film introduces "a new world to the audience" with strong characters and emotions.[23] He felt it difficult to establish a larger-than-life story in a single film sharing the necessity to be split into two parts.[24][25]
The primary technical crew was announced in May 2022 with musician Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographer R. Rathnavelu, editor A. Sreekar Prasad and production designer Sabu Cyril being brought on board.[26][27] During the film's launch, stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects supervisors Brad Minnich and Yugandhar T, confirmed their participation in the film.[28][29][30]
In September 2021, Alia Bhatt was reported to pair opposite Rama Rao as the female lead, but eventually turned down the offer.[31][32]Shraddha Kapoor, Mrunal Thakur and Rashmika Mandanna were even considered to play the female lead, whom refuted due to scheduling conflicts.[33][34][35] In December, Janhvi Kapoor was reported to play the female lead,[36] until her inclusion was officially confirmed on 6 March 2023, Janhvi's birthday.[37][38] 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.[39] In February 2023, Vikram, Vijay Sethupathi and Saif Ali Khan were reported to play the antagonists.[40] Since the former two denied their roles due to their commitments on other projects, Khan was finalized as a part of the cast and joined the film in April 2023.[41][42]Devara marks Janhvi's debut in Telugu and South Indian cinema.
Principal photography commenced on 1 April 2023 in Hyderabad, with Rama Rao in attendance,[50][51] while Janhvi and Khan joined the sets in mid April.[52][53] In mid-May, the team took a two-week break following Rama Rao's departure for a family vacation.[54] 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.[55][56] Several action sequences had been shot in this schedule, including one which has been filmed in extreme low light.[57] The team then took a brief month-long break, before resuming on 31 July 2023, to shoot an underwater action sequence.[58] Rama Rao trained with expert swimmers from Mumbai for this particular schedule.[59] In September, some of the sequences have been shot at a specially constructed beach set in Shamshabad.[60]
On 4 October 2023, the makers filmed the underwater action sequence at Hyderabad which would conclude the schedule post-completion.[61][62] The team then moved to Goa, for filming the concurrent schedule on Dusshera (24 October 2023).[63][64] Janhvi completed filming for her portions on 1 November.[65][66] The team then took a break to celebrate Diwali (12 November 2023) and resumed filming two days later for another brief schedule.[67] The Goa schedule was completed within 20 November and the team returned to Hyderabad for another brief schedule which was filmed during mid-December.[68] During the promotions of Devil: The British Secret Agent, 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.[69][68]
The digital distribution rights of the film were acquired by Netflix.[72]
Notes
^Although Siva assured that the film would begin production in April 2022, post the completion of NTR30, Allu Arjun's commitments to Pushpa: The Rise (2021)—originally started as a single film which was later split into two parts with the second installment shot back-to-back—meant that Arjun had to continue with the same look for both films and could not change his makeover for other projects. This led to Siva eventually shelving the project.[7]
