NC22: Naga Chaitanya’s cop drama with Venkat Prabhu gets a unique title

Naga Chaitanya, who turns 36 today, is gearing up to make his Tamil debut with his upcoming cop-drama directed by Maanaadu filmmaker Venkat Prabhu. While the Tamil-Telugu bilingual was tentatively referred to as #NC22 all along, the title and the first look were launched today, commemorating the star’s birthday. NC22 is now titled Custody. Krithi Shetty plays the female lead in the project.

In the title poster released by the team, Naga Chaitanya sports a moustache, dressed in a khaki-clad avatar and is surrounded by a group of cops holding onto him, with several guns pointed at him as well. A quote hinting at the premise says, ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ In a style typical to the director, the caption beneath the film reads, ‘A Venkat Prabhu hunt’.

A pre-look of Custody was unveiled yesterday as well, piquing the curiosity of many. Beyond the leads, the film features several prominent faces including Priyamani, Arvind Swamy, Sarathkumar, Sampath Raj, Premi Viswanath and Vennela Kishore, to name a few. Srinivasaa Chitturi of Srinivasaa Silver Screen, who produced Seetimaarr, The Warriorr, is bankrolling the film.

For the first time ever, Ilaiyaraaja is joining hands with his son Yuvan Shankar Raja to compose music for the film. For the uninitiated, Venkat Prabhu is the son of Ilaiyaraaja’s brother and filmmaker, composer Gangai Amaran. SR Kathir is the cinematographer for Custody with Rajeevan handling production design. Abburi Ravi pens the dialogues and Venkat Raajen is the editor respectively.

While Naga Chaitanya and Venkat Prabhu had initially planned to work on the Telugu remake of Simbu’s Maanaadu, they dropped the idea and went ahead with a new script later. Chaitanya had also made his Hindi debut this year with Laal Singh Chaddha and will be making an appearance in an OTT show with Amazon Prime Video’s Dhootha, directed by Vikram K Kumar.