Background
Cerović was born in Tušina, a village near Šavnik in the Drobnjak clan, then part of the Ottoman Empire (today in Montenegro).
Cerović was born in Tušina, a village near Šavnik in the Drobnjak clan, then part of the Ottoman Empire (today in Montenegro).
He later became senator in the Montenegrin government. His heroism and the death of Smail-aga Čengić was the theme of Ivan Mažuranić"s poem Smrt Smail-age Čengića, an epic poem celebrating the struggle for freedom. Some of the Cerović family later moved to Serbia, some going north, near to the city of Pljevlja and changed their family name to "Lalović" to disguise from Turks, migrated to Konjic, Hercegovina, more so the village of Brdjani, and changed their last name to Zelenovic to also protect from the Turks.
Those who moved to east Bosnia changed their last name to Droca.
There is a tower in Tušina named after him (the Tower of Duke Novica Cerović).