YS Jagan Mohan Reddy biopic has been announced by director Mahi V Raghav.Just when you think the season of biopics on political leaders was over, here comes a news to prove you wrong. Tollywood director Mahi V Raghav on Wednesday announced the next installment of the Yatra franchise. While Yatra was based on the life of late political leader YS Rajashekar Reddy, the upcoming film will follow the journey of his son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
“YSR’s story is incomplete without Y.S. Raja reddy & Y.S.Jagan. Yatra 2 will complete their story. The reason why Yatra ended on Y.S. Jagan is we could take it off from where we left. YSR’s Yatra started from his father grave and Jagan’s Yatra from his father’s #yatra2 @ShivaMeka (sic),” wrote the director on his Twitter account.
Yatra followed YSR’s efforts to revive the fortunes of his national party, which was losing ground to regional powers in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh. YSR took out a padayaatra (walking tour) in 2003 during which he covered a distance of nearly 1500 kilometers across the state on foot. It did wonders for his political ambitions and helped his party sweep to power in general and assembly elections the following year. The film ends with YSR taking oath as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh but not before showing the crying and wailing images of millions of people over the untimely death of their beloved leader.
YSR’S story is incomplete without Y.S. Raja reddy & Y.S.Jagan. Yatra 2 will complete their story. The reason why Yatra ended on Y.S. Jagan is we could take it off from where we left. YSR’s Yatra started from his father grave and Jagan’s Yatra from his father’s #yatra2 @ShivaMeka
— Mahi Vraghav (@MahiVraghav) May 29, 2019
Mahi V Raghav was criticized for using real footage to help YSR’s son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the elections. He, however, refuted the charges of following a political agenda with his film. “We used real visuals to tell the rest of YSR garu’s life as the story is based and inspired by his life. If that content was part of the story we would have shot it with our characters. The roles of Raja Reddy and Mr YS Jagan Mohan Reddy are very essential to tell the tale of YSR. It will be incomplete without both of them. If I intended to give Jagan Mohan Reddy a political benefit through the movie, I would have created a character with most likely a star playing it in the movie and made sure there is enough meat in the father & son relationship to drive or milk the emotions to benefit Mr Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy (sic),” he had said in a statement earlier.
Now, that Jagan has swept the state elections, the director seems to believe that his ascend to power deserves a feature length ode on celluloid.
