Malayalam superstar Mammootty’s upcoming Telugu film Yatra on Wednesday received a clean ‘U’ certificate without any cuts. The film will hit the screens on February 8, just a week after the release of Mammootty’s long-delayed Tamil film Peranbu.
Yatra director Mahi V Raghav told Indianexpress.com that they could not change the date because it was already announced. And with elections around the corner, the release could not be pushed any further.
Yatra is based on the life and times of late politician YS Rajasekhara Reddy. And the timing of the film assumes significance in the context of upcoming election season. However, Raghav believes that it is “stupidity” to assume that a movie could swing an election.
“We will be overestimating ourselves if we think our film could do something to help a party. Voters are smarter and sharper. You have to give it to the voters. They are clear on what they want, whom to vote. It will be stupidity on our part (to think we can influence elections),” he told Indianexpress.com in a telephonic interview.
In the meantime, Mahi V Raghav is open to reap the benefit from the attention that Yatra may garner in light of forthcoming elections.
“For me, it is just a story. I don’t want it to call it a biopic. I don’t know what it requires to be a biopic. End of the day, we are making films which might have some context to the market at that given time. But beyond that, it is stupidity to assume anything more than that. I think that era of films influencing voters has long gone now. It is a changed world, and we have to respect it,” he added.
Yatra revolves around YSR’s historic padayatra (walkathon) across the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2003, which helped him sweep the state elections in the following year. He remained in power until his untimely death in a chopper crash in 2009.
Mammootty has essayed the role of YSR, and he has dubbed his lines in Telugu. It will also simultaneously release in Malayalam. The film also stars Jagapathi Babu, Sudheer Babu, Suhasini Maniratnam and Rao Ramesh among others.
