‘Yatra’ was made as a story of the United Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister, late YS Rajasekhar Reddy’s quest to understand and resolve the problems of needy people through his walkathon. ‘Yatra 2’ is made as a continuation of ‘Yatra’. Popular Malayalam star Mammootty reprised the role of YSR and Kollywood star Jiiva played the role of his son YS Jagan. ‘Yatra 2’ explored the political scenario of Andhra Pradesh between the 2009-2019 period along with YS Jagan’s walkathon for the poor people. The film is getting released on 8th February. The team interacted with the media on Tuesday.
Mahi V Raghav says, ” Though every one knows about the story, no one knows about how we made the film. Everyone might be familiar with starting and ending. But, no one has an idea about how we narrated and with which emotion we have navigated the film. People might not be aware of scenes we showed in teaser and trailer. Not everyone knows about the scene with a deaf girl and scene involving a blind man. I have made ‘Yatra 2’ with so many unknown aspects and emotional scenes. Keeping aside whether those scenes actually happened or not, the key aspect is should we be able to connect the audience with the core emotion in that scene. That scene depicts, YSR’s persona who helped numerous poor and specially abled people. That blind man’s role reflects numerous people who walked behind YS Jagan during his walkathon. We didn’t go towards the reasons about the demise of YSR garu. This film revolves around the promise made by the son of his father. I didn’t write about going against Delhi and becoming Chief Minister on my own. I didn’t create any characters with an agenda of belittling them. People know the facts. I didn’t project some characters in a bad light to make some people heroes. No matter how many films get released or re-released. Every film should have a successful run and earn good money. Our industry gets back those profits in one way or another. Theatres prosper if movies make good money. Every politician bears cases on them. I didn’t purposefully praise someone in the film. The audience understands if it is genuine or is it propaganda. Movies must reflect reality or they should convince. We can’t say how much is truth and how much is fiction exactly. I can’t say if Mammootty gari scene with deaf girl is truth or not but the soul and emotion in it is fact.”
Ketaki Narayan says, ” This is my first time to play a real life character. Telugu is not my mother tongue. I have acted in Marathi and Hindi languages. This is my first Telugu film. Bharathi garu has a special image. I started knowing more about her like what kind of person she is, how did she react to certain issues. While I was shooting in Pulivendula I understand the intensity my role is actually carrying.
Jiiva says, ” I find it tough to act in the role of YS Jagan garu. I regularly follow his videos from Youtube and media. I carefully observed how Jagan garu speaks and walks. I have to do a lot of research. Whenever Director okayed a shot I felt huge relief. Mahi garu worked very hard for this film. He took a lot of time to finalise me for Jagan gari role. I heaved ahige relief when he played the first shot. I realised in fact I look like Jaganmohan Reddy garu. Since then I stopped looking at the monitor. When I asked Mammootty garu whether he has recieved any threatening calls from opposition, he said that we are actors and this is a creative space… Just look at it like a cinema. I became very emotional while filming for ‘Chudu Nanna’ song.
