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The acting bug bit him while working in the theater. During his final year at Badruka College in Hyderabad, Deverakonda worked behind the ticket counter. “You have to do everything from ticket sales to costume management to backstage work before they give you a chance to act.” The play ended to a standing ovation. Every department was called. When it was his turn, he entered from the entrance—not the back like the rest of the crew, since he was processing tickets. Deverakonda remembers that walk vividly. He describes it as if it were in slow motion, where he is the main character who is applauded as he walks down the aisle to the stage. “I knew at that moment that this was the pinnacle I wanted for the rest of my life.”
Over the next few years, he graduated to wonderful roles and often performed on stage. “The presence of a live audience is a big thing. You can hear them laughing, gasping and clapping and sometimes crying. The sight of a packed hall would make me giddy with excitement.” He talks about his days on the stage, the years spent getting away with very little money, with a touch of nostalgic fondness. But even then, the actor’s eyes were firmly fixed on the big screen. Such was his ambition that he hated the sight of a half-full hall. “Before a performance, I peeked into the hall to check the crowd. If it was packed I would give it my all. If it wasn’t so crowded, I’d be frustrated and play without any interest – just going through the motions. He says he loves large audiences and “knew that I could only get it through the cinema, where a film is seen by billions of people from all over the world.”
Once again, it was not the craft but his insatiable desire for praise that drove him to the movie screen. A few months before turning 25, Deverakonda vowed not to be a struggling actor in his 30s. He couldn’t live with that. So he gave himself a deadline: “I’ll fight until 25. And if things don’t materialize by then, I’ll explore something else.” Plan B was to write scripts or direct. It wasn’t like he wasn’t getting roles; they just weren’t exciting enough. “Even when I was nothing, I refused to do so many films. I have always felt that I was made for greater things. People said, ‘You’ll never get this opportunity,’ but I had higher expectations of myself.” In true cinematic style, where the quintessential underdog conspires to make his extravagant dreams a reality, Deverakonda Yevade Subramanyam days before his 25th birthday. The director, debutant Nag Ashwin, was the assistant director of a film (Life is Beautiful, 2012) that Deverakonda had made earlier and wanted to cast him in the lead role. The film, a coming-of-age drama with philosophical undertones, turned out to be a commercial success. He was here to stay.
Within a year, he did another film as the lead, Pelli Chupulu, directed by Tharun Bhascker Dhaassyam. The film had a script but no budget. While searching for producers, Deverakonda was gifted a copy of Rebel Without a Crew, a book that recounts the extreme lengths director Robert Rodriguez went to for his debut film El Mariachi. One way Rodriguez raised money was by signing up for medical trials. He did several without thinking about the consequences to his own health, and knowing full well that it was illegal to participate in more than one at a time. “If Rodriguez could put in so much effort just to make a film, then what was stopping us?” Deverakonda asks quizzically. No, he didn’t sign up as a guinea pig for big pharma, but he found enough inspiration in Rodriguez’s story to desperately seek sponsors, finally finding two people willing to invest in the independent feature. The cast and crew worked for free.
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