Devanthakudu (1960 film)

After the success of the Telugu film Pakka Inti Ammayi (1953), which was based on the Bengali film Pasher Bari (1952), its director C. Pullaiah waited for five years to adapt another comical Bengali story for Telugu-speaking audiences. The Bengali fantasy comedy Jamalaye Jibanta Manush (1958) was running successfully in cinemas in Bengal. Its screenplay, written by Gouri Shree, incorporated satirical attacks on contemporary life and social issues. Pullaiah established the production company Bhargavi Films with Ch. Subbarao, a Madras-based building contractor, as managing director and himself as producer, and bought the rights to remake Jamalaye Jibanta Manush in Telugu and Tamil languages. The Telugu version was titled Devanthakudu and the Tamil version was titled Naan Kanda Sorgam. Adurthi Narasimha Murthy was the screenwriter of Devanthakudu, and the dialogues were written by Vempati Sadasivabrahmam. Cinematography was handled by A. Shanmugam and the editing by T. R. Srinivasulu while A. Krishnarao served as art director.[1]

N. T. Rama Rao was cast as the male lead Sundaram, and Krishna Kumari.[1] S. V. Ranga Rao, who earlier played Yama in Sati Savitri (1957), reprised his role in Devanthakudu.[2] Kalyanam Raghuramaiah played Narada in addition to working as playback singer. The Tamil version featured a largely different cast, with only Ranga Rao mutual to both.[1][3] Devanthakudu and Naan Kanda Sorgam were filmed simultaneously, with scenes from the former being filmed first and those from the latter second. Because of a belief that if Rama Rao wore multiple different get-ups the film would succeed, he sported two additional disguises for this film: that of a woman, and that of an elderly dance teacher. After Pullaiah finished filming Raghuramaiah's scene as Narada, it was time to film the same scene in Tamil with P. V. Narasimha Bharathi as the character. Pullaiah noticed one of the assistant directors asking Raghuramaiah to give his garland to Narasimha Bharathi since the scene required Narada to wear one. Pullaiah realised that the production team bought only a single garland instead of two as required, so production resumed only after a new garland was obtained. The final cut of Devanthakudu was 17 reels, longer than the Bengali original which was 13 reels.[1]