Deva Katta on ‘Maysabha’ and The Importance Of Caste Conflict Depictions In Telugu Cinema

Telugu filmmaker Deva Katta’s writing philosophy is backed by one simple but comprehensive idea: he cannot tell a story without going into the character’s socio-economic conditions. “Even if I write a romcom, it will still have a bit of that encasing around it. I can't cut that away,” the filmmaker tells The Hollywood Reporter India in an interview.

Deva Katta, whose repertoire includes the acclaimed Prasthanam (2010) and the politically charged Republic (2021), has never been one to shy away from exploring caste conflicts from the lens of a human drama. His recent series, Mayasabha, is an extension of that philosophy.

Starring Aadhi Pinisetty and Chaitanya Rao, the show follows the friendship and rivalry between two friends from opposing caste affiliations and political parties. Deva Katta recalls basing this story on an incident from his own life. “I grew up in a small town in my uncle's family in Railway Koduru (in Andhra Pradesh). I’m from a small farmer's family, and my uncle was into politics. At the time, I saw two families and their friendship. They were close generationally, but at some point, things changed,” he recalls. The families were divided into two different political parties based on their caste. “When they got into rival parties, there would still be warmth, but their followers used to fight and indulge in violence. So I saw them deal with these issues with mutual respect.”

Deva Katta wanted Mayasabha to embody people’s collective conscience towards politics.  “Every human character is more real to me only when I see the socio-economic conditions around them,” he says. The filmmaker also places Mayasabha bang in the middle of Andhra Pradesh’s political awakening. “Until the late '70s, AP was almost like it was under British rule, and there were appointed Chief Ministers. They used to call them “seetu cover” CMs. During a given term, there used to be three or four CMs. Only when the awakening came, some great leaders became the face of Andhra politics.” 

Aadhi and Chaitanya’s arcs in the show bear similarities to Telugu politicians Chandrababu Naidu and YS Rajasekhar Reddy. Although the story is fictional, Deva Katta understands why these parallels are naturally drawn. “It is quite possible that there might be an indirect influence (of them) on us. They may feel familiarity, but that is important for people to own the story."

It was also important for the filmmaker to speak about caste, an undercurrent that not many Telugu filmmakers have openly explored. “When caste films from Tamil are remade in Telugu, some of them eliminate the caste conflict itself. Telugu (cinema) has been very reserved in talking about caste conflicts. We can't become prisoners of caste and blind belief. Our caste system is like the QAnon (a far-right conspiracy theory and political movement) of the USA. I approached everything with the top-view perspective.”