Naga Chaitanya to play a cricketer in Shiva Nirvana's romantic drama alongside Samantha Akkineni

Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Akkineni, who got married last year, are set to play an on screen couple for the fourth time in director Shiva Nirvana’s upcoming yet-untitled Telugu project, which was officially launched in Hyderabad in the presence of actor Nagarjuna as special guest. Last seen together in Deva Katta’s 2014 Telugu social drama Autonagar Surya, Chaitanya and Samantha will begin shoot for the project from next month. In an exclusive chat with Firstpost, director Shiva Nirvana, who rose to fame with Ninnu Kori last year, opens up about the project and how he brought together the most loved pair of Tollywood for his film. [caption id=“attachment_4797931” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Naga Chaitanya, Samantha Akkineni and Nagarjuna at the event. Image from Twitter/@soonincinemas[/caption] “After Ninnu Kori, I wanted to take a gap and do films in different genres. But I struck upon an exciting idea and thought that if I turn it into a story then it’d suit Chaitanya. So I went and pitched the idea and Chaitanya really liked it. I also suggested that it’d be nice to have Samantha be part of this story and he asked me to go and pitch the story to her. She got really excited after she heard it,” Shiva said, confirming that Chaitanya plays a cricketer in the film. Contrary to reports, the film won’t be a sports drama. “This will be a family drama where cricket will merely be used as a backdrop to connect the characters of Chaitanya and Samantha. Chai will be seen playing a cricketer and he will take cricket lessons briefly to play his part. If everything goes as planned, we start shooting from mid August,” Shiva said. Lauded by critics and audiences alike for his mature portrayal of romance in Ninnu Kori, Shiva said the treatment of romance in this project will be quite different, “Romance in Ninnu Kori was very lighthearted, but it will be intense in this film. Also, Ninnu Kori was more urban-centric in its overall approach and treatment. It won’t be too urban this time. We are in the process of finalising the rest of the cast and crew,” he said. To be bankrolled under the banner of Shine Screens, the film will be produced by Sahu Garapati and Harish Peddi. Chaitanya has just wrapped up work on two projects – Sailaja Reddy Alludu and Savyasachi, which are due for release in the coming months. Samantha, on the other hand, announced on 22 July that her upcoming Telugu-Tamil paranormal thriller U-Turn will hit the screens worldwide on 13 September.