From a corporate cubicle to the screen: The unlikely inspiration behind 'Deewana'

Director Srikanth Sangisetti’s journey from a disillusioned employee to a filmmaker highlights the raw, often chaotic process of crafting cinema in the digital age.

For over a decade, Srikanth Sangisetti spent his days in a corporate office, wrestling with Excel sheets and software he never quite mastered. While his peers climbed the corporate ladder, Sangisetti was mentally absent, living in a world of scripts and frames. He wasn't a product of film school; his education came from the intense, obsessive consumption of cinema and the frustration of watching mediocre writing dominate the screens. Today, that frustration has culminated in Deewana, a film currently making waves in the industry.

The genesis of Deewana wasn't born in a high-end writers' room, but from a flicker of curiosity sparked by a television screen. Sangisetti recalls being struck by a specific anchor he watched daily on Gemini TV. The premise was simple yet evocative: what if an ordinary stranger decided to track down this person he saw every day? The "what ifs" began to spiral—what would happen if they met? What would the fallout be? That singular, relatable fascination became the emotional and commercial backbone of his debut feature.

The grind behind the glitz

The path to the premiere was anything but linear. Sangisetti’s background includes a stint as an assistant on the experimental, Nandi Award-winning film Minugurulu, a project so significant its script is now preserved in the Oscar library. Yet, the transition to being a lead director required grueling personal sacrifices. He recalls the tension of balancing a stable job with the volatile demands of filmmaking, a struggle that saw him quit his job only to return when the financial reality of supporting his family took hold.

It was during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted by his father's failing health, that Sangisetti finally broke away from the corporate cycle to focus entirely on his craft. His writing process was as scrappy as his career path: lacking fancy tools, he would scribble dialogue and plot points on whatever was at hand, even the back of matchboxes, driven by the fear that a fleeting idea might vanish before he could document it.

The industry stamp of approval

The buzz around the film has been bolstered by significant industry support. Producer Harshit Reddy, who has been vocal about his gratitude for the opportunities surrounding projects like Kalki and Kalki 2, has backed the vision, while industry veteran Allu Aravind has publicly praised Deewana as a "beautiful love story." The momentum reached a new peak when Samantha recently unveiled a romantic track from the film, which has already gained traction for its catchy, colloquial lyrics.

Why it matters

The emergence of Deewana serves as a case study for the shifting landscape of Indian cinema. It underscores a growing trend where storytellers are bypassing traditional, institutional routes to filmmaking, instead leveraging personal obsession and digital-era agility to reach audiences. In an era where OTT platforms and regional cinema are democratizing content, Sangisetti’s journey from a frustrated employee to a director signifies a broader shift: the "outsider" perspective is no longer a barrier but a creative engine. The industry is increasingly betting on raw, lived-in narratives over polished but derivative studio scripts.