Tollywood filmmakers seem to be determined to cash in on the mileage of top political leaders in the country to spin box office magic in the next few months. Political stalwarts like late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the latest YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, besides Congress ex-president Sonia Gandhi, Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and even late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy will be seen on the big screen.
Of course, their roles would be reprised by actors like Mamootty, Jeeva and Ajmal Ameer and others but their struggles, policies and political decisions against their opponents are bound to create ripples in the film industry as well as in political circles.
“No doubt, political films trigger some buzz and could ensure a bit of openings. However, the Telugu audiences are shrewd enough to differentiate between chalk and cheese. They would patronize a political film which is engaging and gripping, made without any bias. Equally, they would reject a agenda-driven film meant to promote a particular party or individual, so we have to see audience would take it up,” says producer Vishnu Induri, who made biopics on legendary NTR and iconic J Jayalalitha as ‘Kathanayakudu’ and ‘Thailavi’ respectively. “I made those films with my funds as I greatly admired those stalwarts,” he adds.
The political thrillers which will be loaded with lookalikes of political leaders- ‘Vyooham’, ‘Yatra 2’, ‘KCR’ and ‘Tiger Nageswara Rao’ wherein former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would be making a brief appearance. “Since our film is set in the 1970s, our script demanded the presence of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and it is crucial to our period adventure. However, ours is not a political film rather an action film action adventure to release worldwide,” says producer Abhishek Agarwal
However, producer Dasari Kiran Kumar is making a proper political potboiler revolving around the nine years of political struggle of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He also vehemently denies that he was being funded by YSR Congress Party to make a biopic on Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. “These rumours are false and baseless. I am rich and I don’t need other people's money.
Honestly, I am making ‘Vyooham’ since I was moved by the struggles faced by the son of Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and I wanted to depict his journey from a struggling political leader to the Chief Minister’s chair. It would be an inspirational story,” says Kiran Kumar who claims that lookalikes of Sonia Gandhi, N Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have a role to play in the movie.
‘These are just characters in the movie that played key roles in the life of Y S Jagan. We are not sneering at anyone. Already, people have liked our trailer and it is trending on Youtube, so people have lapped it up,” he adds. Just a few days ago, Jabardhast Rakesh unveiled the cutout of Telangana Chief Minister in his upcoming movie "KCR'.
