Development In February 2020,
N. T. Rama Rao Jr and
Trivikram Srinivas were reported to be collaborating on a second film, following
Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava (2018), tentatively titled
NTR30. The film was to be produced by
S. Radha Krishna and
Nandamuri Kalyan Ram under the banners of Haarika & Hassine Creations and
N. T. R. Arts. Later that July,
Koratala Siva announced another project,
AA21, with
Allu Arjun in the lead, to be produced by former distributor Sudhakar Mikkilineni's newly launched production studio, Yuvasudha Arts. However, neither project materialised. In April 2021, it was reported that Rama Rao and Siva would collaborate on
NTR30, marking their second collaboration after
Janatha Garage (2016). The film was officially announced on
Ugadi (13 April 2021) with Yuvasudha Arts producing the film in collaboration with
N. T. R. Arts. However, production was delayed due to Siva's commitments to
Acharya and Rama Rao's to
RRR. Siva described it as a "large-scale project that has more commercial appeal" in comparison to his debut film
Mirchi (2013). Following the box-office failure of
Acharya, Siva wanted to fine-tune the script making necessary changes before finalising it as a draft, which delayed the commencement of filming throughout late 2022. By November, Siva started the pre-production works of the film with production set to begin in early 2023. Initially set to begin production on 24 February, work on the project was delayed due to the death of
Taraka Ratna as well as Rama Rao's participation in the
Academy Awards campaign for
RRR. The film was officially launched on 23 March with a
puja ceremony held in
Hyderabad with the presence of the cast and crew and
S. S. Rajamouli preceding with the
muhurtam shot. The film's title
Devara was officially announced on 19 May 2023, the eve of Rama Rao's birthday. On 4 October, Siva announced that the film would be split into two parts.
Casting The technical crew consist of musician
Anirudh Ravichander, cinematographer
R. Rathnavelu, editor
A. Sreekar Prasad, production designer
Sabu Cyril, stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects supervisors Brad Minnich and Yugandhar T.
Alia Bhatt,
Shraddha Kapoor,
Mrunal Thakur and
Rashmika Mandanna were considered to play the female lead, but turned down the offer.
Janhvi Kapoor was confirmed to play the lead female role, in her first South Indian film. At the
India Today Conclave, Janhvi described it as a "dream come true" moment on working with Rama Rao as she recalled on how she manifested her debut in South industry through Rama Rao's film in her past interviews. In April 2023,
Saif Ali Khan was signed as an antagonist, marking his debut in Telugu cinema. Khan stated that speaking a new language for the film was challenging for him, and he did feel like a “newcomer”.
Prakash Raj and
Meera Jasmine participated at the launch ceremony, thereby being part of the film. In May 2023, further supporting cast members joined the film with
Mani Chandana and Tarak Ponnappa being part of the sets. In June 2023, it was announced that
Shine Tom Chacko was cast in the film. In February 2024, reports surfaced stating that
Shruti Marathe, a
Marathi actress, had been chosen to star alongside Jr NTR. Shruti confirmed this during an interview with the Marathi Star Media portal.
Filming Principal photography commenced on 1 April 2023 in
Hyderabad, with Rama Rao in attendance, while Janhvi and Khan joined the sets in mid April. Filming resumed on 7 June 2023 with few crucial sequences between Rama Rao, Khan and other cast members being shot there and was completed in 14 days. Several action sequences had been shot in this schedule, including one which has been filmed in extreme low light. The team then took a brief month-long break, before resuming on 31 July 2023, to shoot an underwater action sequence. Rama Rao trained with expert swimmers from Mumbai for this particular schedule. In September, some of the sequences were shot at a specially constructed beach set in
Shamshabad. On 4 October 2023, the makers filmed the underwater action sequence at Hyderabad which would conclude the schedule post-completion. Janhvi completed filming for her portions on 1 November. The team then took a break to celebrate
Diwali (12 November 2023) and resumed filming two days later for another brief schedule. The Goa schedule was completed by 20 November and the team returned to Hyderabad for another brief schedule which was filmed during mid-December. Kalyan Ram revealed that 80% of the film's shooting had been completed by late-December 2023, and filming would be wrapped by January 2024. In mid-March 2024, the team moved to Goa for filming a song sequence with Rama Rao and Janhvi. Following a short break, the team filmed a concurrent schedule in May 2024 at
Visakhapatnam where Khan's portions were filmed. Rama Rao was not present in that schedule as he was filming for
War 2 (2025) in
Mumbai. In mid-June, the team shot an action sequence set in a forest in Goa featuring Rama Rao and Khan. In the same month, the team moved to
Krabi,
Thailand for filming a romantic song featuring Rama Rao and Jhanvi ("
Chuttamalle") which was choreographed by
Bosco Martis. In July 2024, the team filmed another schedule in Shamshabad. Due to multiple leaks throughout the production, the portions were filmed inside closed sets with the crew members restricted from using phones throughout the schedule. On 14 August 2024, Rama Rao announced that he had completed filming his portions for the film. In an interaction with
Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Rama Rao added that he initially planned to shoot the underwater sequences at one of the biggest pools in
Kapoli, but for reasons unknown they decided to set up a pool in the studio where they would predominantly shoot the action sequences. The team constructed a 20-foot water tank, dug five feet with 200 x 150 feet dimensions, in which they shot most of the action sequences for 30–35 days. He added, "We had these big diggers which came in and created artificial waves. We had wave machines. We have motorboats, motors fixed into the water to give small ripples in the pool. There was a pool and there was a water tank as well. So, it was very high on action."
Post-production The visual effects were handled by Kalyan Ram's visual effects company, Advaitha Creative Works, along with
Annapurna Studios,
Digital Domain, Stealthworks Taiwan, NXT VFX,
NY VFXWaala, Alzahra VFX, Phantom FX, Studio51, Firebolt Entertainment, Maskman Studio, Oscar VFX,
DNEG, and Redefine VFX; Yugandhar T. and Brad Minnich served as the
visual effects supervisors. As the film relied heavily on visual effects, Kalyan Ram researched extensively on enhancing the
computer graphics and effects for nearly eight months, detailing on specific sequences that need VFX and real elements, respectively. To achieve this, the VFX team storyboarded the particular shots which demanded VFX.
Dubbing for the film began simultaneously in July 2024. According to cinematographer Rathnavelu, the film featured 3000 CG shots. The initial runtime of the film was 190 minutes. It was sent to the
Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on 12 September 2024, where it received
U/A certificate. The censor board demanded four cuts for the film where a character kicking his wife, another character kicking his mother being modified, a five-second shot of a character hanging through a sword and then sliding down through it had been removed, and a scene with Rama Rao's character riding a shark in the sea was modified. With the exclusion of those sequences, the final runtime was revealed to be around 170 minutes. == Music ==