Respective political parties are gearing up to cash in on three films before the elections.
The movie crazy people of the two Telugu states—Telangana and Andhra Pradesh—are going to witness a battle of the biopics on three political leaders before their parties go to the elections sometime later this year or early next year.
Three big films—one on late Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao (NTR), another on late CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) and the third one on present Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) are being made.
As producers have betted around Rs 300 crore on them, the films are going to generate a lot of hype and hoopla among the fans and the respective political parties are gearing up to cash in on them before the
elections.
Besides social media following, these films, too, are being viewed as barometers to the parties’ popularity among the masses.
The biopic on NTR, titled NTR, is being made by his son and TDP MLA from Hindupur, Nandamuri Balakrishna and popular director Krish will direct it. Balakrishna, also brother-in-law of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, started the shooting of his film on 5 July and the movie is expected to be ready in the next two months, so as to be available for the polls, even if they were advanced.
Balakrishna is playing the role of his late father, while Vidya Balan will play NTR’s late wife, Basava Tarakam who died of cancer three decades ago.
The movie on YSR, titled Yatra, is being made by two Chittoor-based producers, Vijay Chilla and Shashi Devireddy and directed by Mahi V. Raghav. Popular Malayalam hero Mammootty will play the role of YSR. Mammootty, who has a huge fan following in the Telugu states, said that he was honoured to act as YSR who died of a helicopter crash in 2009.
“I am lucky to play YSR who had created history by taking up a padayatra (walkathon) for 1,500 km across Andhra Pradesh in 2003. People still remember him for his pro-welfare and pro-farmer policies,” said Mammootty in a recent media conference here. The producers are planning to release the film by November first week, if the elections are advanced.
The film on KCR is an afterthought by some enthusiastic producers from Hyderabad following the excitement over biopics on NTR and YSR.
The role of KCR will be played by popular Tamil character actor Nasser and the movie is titled, Udyama Simham or Gulal, taking inspiration from the Chief Minister’s fight for a separate Telangana state from 2001 to 2014.
Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao will play KCR’s role, Alluri Krishnam Raju will direct it and Raj Kandukuri is the producer of the movie.
In fact, all the three films are scheduled to hit the screens only during Sankranti, the harvest festival, that is on 14 and 15 January, so as to catch up with elections in the summer.
However, the speculation over possible advancement of elections later this year has prompted the producers to speed up the process. Already, the local media is abuzz with trivia on these biopics.