NOTA, a political thriller starring Vijay Deverakonda and directed by Anand Shankar of Iru Mugan fame, is all set to release on October 5. The film will release in Tamil and Telugu.
“The script demanded a strong protagonist. Vijay was hesitant when I first narrated the script to him, but he called me an hour later and asked for the entire script and said that he was interesting in doing the role,” said director Anand Shankar.
For Deverakonda, it was also about learning Tamil. At a recent press meet in Chennai, the actor said, “Whenever I tweet out something about NOTA, I see this ‘marana waiting’ (eagerly waiting) in the comments. And now even I’m ‘marana waiting’. I don’t know whether you’ll like the film but you’ll experience it.”
Talking about Deverakonda, Sathyraj said, “When I was dubbing for Nanban, I wrote the Telugu dialogues in Tamil and read it without understanding the scene. A Telugu writer told me that it was the worst pronunciation. Later I told Shankar Sir that I can’t do the Telugu dubbing. In NOTA, there is a lengthy scene with dialogues running for four pages and Vijay rocked the scene. I was surprised to see him delivering the Tamil dialogues at a stretch.”
The film also stars Mehreen Pirzada, Yaashika Aannand, Sanchana Natarajan, Karunankaran, MS Bhaskar and Nasser.
Talking about his role, veteran actor MS Bhaskar said, “In Anand’s Arima Nambi, I had a small but significant role, which was appreciated. When Anand approached me for this film, he said the role is small but it will be engaging. I play this character Abu Thahib, which will also bring me special recognition.”
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Produced by KE Gnanavelraja under the Studio Greens banner, the music and the background score for the film is composed by Sam CS of Vikram Vedha fame. The film has only two songs. Sam said, “Anand usually prefers background score over songs. The trailer shows that it’s a political thriller, it is actually an emotional film. I realised this when I was composing the music. The film portrays many real-life events and incidents which affect us in our day-to-day lives.”
Working on the film felt like being a part of an astrological prediction, said Nasser who plays the role of a corrupt politician. “We will be shooting a particular scene and the next day we will see news similar to the scene in the papers. The film deals with the current political scenario and encourages healthy debates around it,” he said.