Venkat Prabhu officially announces his Tollywood debut; Naga Chaitanya plays the lead in NC 22

There have been reports about director Venkat Prabhu making his entry into Tollywood with a film with Naga Chaitanya. It was also heard that the project will be a Telugu remake of the filmmaker's Silambarasan-starrer Maanaadu (streaming on SonyLIV) which released a few months ago. 

He has now made it official through a tweet. The duo is joining hands for an untitled movie which will be bankrolled by Srinivasaa Chitturi under Srinivasaa Silver Screen. Venkat tweeted, "God is kind.. with the blessings of almighty and my fans I am happy to announce my next, a bilingual film (tamil & telugu) with my brother @chay_akkineni produced by @SS_Screens @srinivasaaoff #NC22 #VP11 #SSS10 (sic)."

Tentatively titled NC 22, we hear that the movie will have a fresh story and that it has nothing to do with Maanaadu. He posted a picture with Chaitanya and the producer along with the tweet. The project marks the director's 11th movie as a filmmaker. His last outing was Manmatha Leelai which hit the screens last Friday.

Venkat did not have a theatrical release for five years. His last movie before Maanaadu was Chennai 600028 II: Second Innings which was released in 2016. If everything goes well, the movie might release in theatres later this year.

Naga Chaitanya was last seen in Bangarraju (streaming on Zee5) which released earlier this year. He currently has Bollywood film Laal Singh Chaddha directed by Advait Chandran and Vikram Kumar's Thank You. 

The former, which marks his debut in Hindi, has him sharing screen space with Aamir Khan. The film, which was initially supposed to release in April, has been postponed to August. Thank You will have him act along with Raashi Khanna and Avika Gor.