Vijay Deverakonda's upcoming bilingual political thriller NOTA is inspired by a Tamil novel, producer Gnanavel Raj tells us. Refuting the allegations that the film is based on a true story, the producer explains, "NOTA is actually based on the novel, Vettattam penned by Shan Karuppusamy. We have bought the rights and the script was altered a bit to suit the sensibilities of the audience. The author, along with the film’s director Anand Shankar, was involved in writing the script. The film is an out-and-out political drama that touches upon several contemporary issues from across the South Indian States. But the film will not show anyone in a bad light.” 

The film features the Arjun Reddy actor as a Chief Minister. It is reliably learnt that the story also features the incidents that happened during the State division of Andhra Pradesh; a couple of characters resembling Telangana Chief Minister KCR and his son KTR; former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s last days in the hospital; her hunger strike on Cauvery issue; Karnataka political drama; and Tamil Nadu-Kerala dam controversy. 

Also starring Mehreen Pirzada, Nasser, and Sathyaraj, NOTA is slated to be released simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil on October 5. The film marks the debut of Vijay Deverakonda in Tamil. CS Sam is scoring the music, while Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran is the film's cinematographer.