After a long gap, Mammootty is returning to Tollywood with Yatra where he will be seen as YSR. Naturally, there is a lot of attention on the film in both film and political circuits. While NTR : Kathanayakudu failed to attract masses, eyes are on whether YSR’s charisma and Mammootty’s image would help to draw the footfalls or not.
As Yatra is all set for release on Feb 8th, Mammootty is in Hyderabad to promote the film and to attend the film’s pre-release event. Excerpts from Mammootty’s interview.
Is it your comeback in Telugu?
Yatra is the Telugu film that I’m doing after a long gap. As soon as I heard about the role, I felt that it would suit me perfectly.
Why did you choose a young director like Mahi?
In my long career, I’ve worked with over 70 debuntante directors. Most of them are doing quite well today in various languages. Mahi isn’t a new director. He had already made a couple of films. I believe that young directors will be more passionate and would tell a subject in a novel way.
How did Yatra happen?
Director Mahi had approached me with the script of Yatra for a legendary character. I agreed to listen to the script as I thought I could add value to the role. After listening to the script, I felt this is the film I should do. Yatra is based on some incidents in YSR’s life, particularly his Padayatra. Some scenes in the film could be from YSR’s real life and some could be just fictitious. Yatra is not a complete biopic of YSR. Earlier, I had done biopics of Ambedkar and Basheer.
Did you try to act like YSR in the film?
No, I haven’t tried to imitate like YSR. I just understood the script and went by it. We just took the soul of YSR and did the film. It is not possible for someone to act and behave like YSR. So, we never tried to do it. We just took the essence and we did the film. Also, I personally haven’t done any research. I just went by the script. Languages could be different, but human emotions and woes of people is same across all languages. But took some care during dubbing. In fact, Telugu and Malayalam have similar words. But some words need more stress and we took special care on them.
Any plans to join Politics?
(Laughs). I have been in film industry for the past 38 years. Why to go into politics now? Cinema is my politics. Cinema industry has more politics in fact.
Do you watch Telugu movies? What are the Telugu films that you watched recently?
I watch a lot of films irrespective of its language. These days, I’m watching a lot of films online. The last Telugu films I watched were Rangasthalam and Bharat Ane Nenu.
What are your dream roles?
The roles that I’m doing are all my dream roles.
Did you happen to meet YS Jagan?
No
Have you received any compliments or messages from YSRCP?
No
Recent Random Post:
