Vijay Devarakonda's next project to be Bharat Kamma's directorial debut, Dear Comrade

_Arjun Reddy-_fame actor Vijay Devarakonda’s next project with debutant director Bharat Kamma, an erstwhile associate of filmmaker Chandra Sekhar Yeleti, has been titled Dear Comrade. The makers took to Twitter yesterday to announce the title officially on the eve of Devarakonda’s birthday. The first schedule of the film, which is tipped to be an action drama with elements of romance, will kickstart in June.

Mythri Movie Makers.
Big Ben Cinemas.
& Your Man @Thedeverakonda.

Bring you an action drama you will not forget - #DearComrade directed by Bharat Kamma.

Shoot starts this June. pic.twitter.com/O7dM72HYKX

— Vijay Deverakonda (@TheDeverakonda) May 8, 2018

Mythri Movie Makers, who is basking in the glory of consecutive super-hit films in Srimanthudu, Janatha Garage and Rangasthalam, is co-producing the project alongside Yash Ragineni of Big Ben Cinemas. The film has a solid technical team in cinematographer Sujith Sarang and his elder brother editor Sreejith Sarang, who rose to fame through director Karthick Naren’s Tamil blockbuster Dhuruvangal 16.  Firstpost got in touch with director Bharat Kamma to learn some exclusive details about the project. “First of all, I would like to clarify that it’s not a communist film. Since the word Comrade is synonymous with communism, everyone is thinking so. Comrade means friend or companion and that’s the context of my title too. Vijay Devarakonda plays a student leader in the film, but the story doesn’t revolve around any revolution as such. He hails from a communist family in the movie,” said Bharat. Vijay and Bharat had finalised the project three years ago but it took time to materialise. “Dear Comrade is an emotional and intense love story with elements of action. We are planning to shoot some crucial scenes in hill stations such as Ooty and some portions in Ladakh,” Bharat added. We also got in touch with DoP Sujith Sarang, who has already completed Taxiwaala with Vijay Devarakonda, to learn more about the film. “Bharath is my long-time friend. We had worked together in a short film called Maro Prapancham seven years back, and have known each other for ten years. Since I’ve already worked in Taxiwaala and share a good comfort level with Vijay, I’ve come on board. Vijay is a great performer and a cool person. He’s very comfortable to work with, and we (Sujith and Sreejith) are going to collaborate on two more projects with him,” said Sujith. “The treatment will be realistic in Dear Comrade. We’re planning to shoot in locations in such as Kakinada and Hyderabad. It will be completely different than Arjun Reddy; little more poetic and subtle,” Sujith added. Actress Rashmika Mandanna, who made a mark as Saanvi Joseph in Kannada blockbuster Kirik Party, has been signed to play the lead heroine in the film. She debuted in Tollywood earlier this year through Naga Shourya’s Chalo and has already started shooting for Nani-Nagarjuna’s untitled multi-starrer directed by Sriram Aditya. Composer Justin Prabhakaran, best known for his work in Tamil films such as Oru Naal Koothu and Vijay Sethupathi’s Pannaiyaarum Padminiyum, will make his foray into Tollywood through Dear Comrade.  Keerthy Suresh-starrer  Mahanati,  which has Vijay Devarakonda playing the role of a journalist, has hit screens on Wednesday and opened to rave reviews. After watching the special show earlier today, Vijay tweeted. “Proud proud to have played my little part in this epic. Thank you for making me do this Nagi and Priyanka. All the lovely actors Young and Super Senior can all look back at this film with Pride.” [sic]. To celebrate his birthday, Devarakonda has hired three trucks to distribute free ice creams in Hyderabad to beat the scorching heat of Hyderabad. Taking to Twitter, he posted in a series of tweets, “A few days of shooting in the Sun made me think of this. What if I got 3 ice cream trucks to drive around the city and give out free ice cream to everyone going about their day in the heat. The traffic cops, the street vendors, students, employees. So say Hi to the #TheDevarakondaBirthdayTruck I am throwing the city a party, these trucks will be traveling through most of #Hyderabad. We will be giving away IceCream to as many as possible and If you spot them, don’t be shy just go and take some IceCream:) smile and enjoy it.” [sic] Vijay Devarakonda’s next release will be Taxiwaala, which is directed by Rahul Sankriyan. The audio of the film, which is produced by SKN and is jointly presented by UV Creations and Geetha Arts, will be launched soon. The movie is gearing up to hit screens towards the end of May or early June. Vijay is currently shooting for Iru Mugan director Anand Shankar’s Tamil, Telugu bi-lingual  NOTA,  which is being produced by KE Gnananvel Raja’s Studio Green. The film has Mehreen Pirzada playing the lead heroine. (Also read: Vijay Devarakonda hints at sequel to Arjun Reddy; film will see protagonist play a father)