Credits:
Banner: Sumanth Arts
Cast: Venkatesh, Soundarya, Anjala Zaveri, MS Narayana, Suresh, Kota, Ali, Babu Mohan, Ahuthi Prasad, Raghunatha Reddy, Prema (Goddess), Bhupinder Singh
Music: Mani Sharma
Lyrics: Jonnavitula and Veturi (Okati Rendu Moodu)
Cinematography: S. Gopal Reddy
Editing: Tata Suresh
Art Direction: Sabu Cyril
Fights: Peter Hein, Kanal Kannan
Choreography: DKS Babu, G Kala, Ahmed Khan, Saroj Khan, Brinda,
Sound Mixing: Madhusudhan Reddy
VFX: Kartik Dayanand Boddapati and VS Elangovan
Dialogues: Jonnavitula Ramalingeswara Rao
Story: Sumanth Arts Productions
Screenplay - Direction: Kodi Ramakrishna
Producer: MS Raju
Release Date: January 14th, 2001
Interesting Facts:
After Devi movie, Venky is good friend of MS Raju and he recently got a huge hit and decided to make an ambitious movie and they settled on Deviputrudu and put Kodi Ramakrishna as the director. This combo already scored a super hit in Satruvu in 1990. They kept the same technical team S Gopal Reddy camera, Suresh Tara editing, but changed Mani Sharma as music director since he was number 1 at the time. Raj Koti did the music for Satruvu. Movie also had Kota and this movie does as well.
"I preferred my hero Venkatesh for the project conceptualized Devi Putrudu. It is a film which could only be made with directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The story of the film was wonderful and I became emotional and started that project. After starting the project I realized the depth, duration and budget. Then we realized that it would take 10 years to make. Hence we wound up the film and released it. The film became a flop and my position was back to square one. I had to compensate my buyers, my finances and my ego, very dearly".[9] - MS Raju
Filmed in Dwaraka, Mumbai, and other sets I believe.
All 3 movies composed by Mani Sharma all time record and all the albums for all 3 movies became superheats. But after the movie nobody heard the songs again. Its still a record I think no dmusic director has ever done or will do tbh. Recently can only think of Thaman Business vs Bodyguard Sankranthi 2012 it released and both movies had music by him.
It was made with a record budget of 14 crores back then which in todays conversion is about 140 crores in present day.
Mrugaraju, Deviputrudu occupied majority screens and Narasimha Naidu released in 14 screen very limited screens and later became Industry HIT.
Movie released and got flop talk but then it got good traction on TV later and appreciated it. People were particularly turned how in 2001 with limited technology Kodi Ramakrishna made those graphics.
Jagadamba Theater, Vizag 38 Days RUN
Closing Gross : 19,73,006/
Hyderabad-Sandhya70 MM -54 days
100 days theaters
Vijayawada – Alankar A/c – 130
Guntur – Naaz
Writing/Direction:
The film scores points for it’s attempt. The movie is extremely unique and scary but also very good in terms of ambition and making something new and also the whole mythology and rituals aspect like the poojari explaining to Soundaraya or that element about the box and the destruction it can cause. All of this causes intrigue and suspense. For that reason alone its become a cult movie. But the writing could have been a lot better.
Direction by Kodi Ramakrishna is amazing. He was a visionary when it came to fantasy genre and this movie is actually stunning in certain portions especially the VFX in 2001 when that range technology in India was not developed yet, the little girl going to space scene, the green helmet, the kumkuma from the sadhu, the whirlpool scene, the ghost scene, box opening scene, and climax scene and then the signs changing after Venky gets left alone. And the movie is actually very scary haha. Mix of BGM and content with ghosts, rituals and all of that stuff. The direction gets 100//100 but the writing isn’t good so the execution is a missed attempt for sure. Nonetheless the effort and attempt itself we must appreciate it.