Naga Chaitanya on Custody: I jumped out of excitement and hugged Venkat Prabhu after the narration

Naga Chaitanya, whose films in 2022 met with mixed results at the box office but for Bangarraju, is more than eager to bounce back with Custody, his first Tamil-Telugu bilingual. Directed by Venkat Prabhu, Krithi Shetty plays the leading lady in the film while Arvind Swami is the antagonist. Ahead of the cop thriller’s release on May 12, the actor spoke with the media on Wednesday.

“We are happy with the response for the teaser that was released a few weeks ago. The trailer will be out on May 5, some of our media friends have watched it already and had great things to say about it. Custody began when Venkat Prabhu called me for an appointment and came down to Hyderabad to narrate the story. The story is about a boy-next-door constable who’ll go to any extent to protect the truth,” he said.

The actor really liked the premise and felt not many films have narrated a story through the eyes of a constable. “‘Why me?’ is a question I asked Venkat Prabhu because he knows every leading Tamil star who’ll work for him. He claimed that he liked my performance in Love Story and he was apparently told I would fit into his character well. I felt very happy and I was keen to work in Tamil cinema. I spent 16 years of my life in Chennai, did my schooling there.”

Chaitanya shared he couldn’t have asked for a better launch in Tamil than a Venkat Prabhu film. “He (Venkat) was keen on working in a Telugu film from a long time and I am glad Custody worked out well for both of us. It’s a win-win situation and I’m sure he’ll be here to entertain Telugu audiences for a long time. He has a typical trademark-entertainment style and Tamil audiences are very aware of it. Telugu crowds will find it refreshing too.”

He hugged Venkat Prabhu out of excitement after listening to the story. “I generally don’t react much otherwise. It gave me a lot of happiness. When I saw the first copy on the edit table, he delivered what he promised. It’s with that confidence we’re promoting the film. I thank Srinivasa Chitturi and Pavan Kumar for mounting the project on a huge scale.”

Bringing together an ensemble cast - Sarath Kumar, Priyamani, Arvind Swami -, it was a lovely experience working with senior actors, he added. “Arvind Swami never says yes to every script and only okays it he likes it. Raju is a beautifully written character. I never thought this combination of Ilaiyaraaja and Yuvan Shankar Raja would be possible for my film. It’s purely because of Venkat Prabhu and it’s a dream come true.”

Venkat Prabhu may have told it’s a simple story but it isn’t, Chaitanya mentioned. “When there are so many characters, there are as many layers to the film. There’ll be a newer layer unfolding every 10 mins, audiences will always be on the edge of their seat. It’s my second film with Krithi and it was a dream working with her. I thank the crew, technicians who’ve worked on the film and I can’t wait to watch your responses.”