At present, two Telugu films are being made on Andhra politics, both supposedly aimed at boosting the image of YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
One film is that of maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, titled “Vyuham” (strategy) and that is that of Mahi Raghava, titled “Yatra-2,” which is a sequel to his earlier film Yatra-1.
While releasing the promo of his film recently, RGV said Vyuham is a political thriller, based on the incidents that had taken place in the state after the death of Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
He said all important political developments taken place in the state would be depicted in the movie, including the padayatra of Jagan Mohan Reddy, murder of YSR’s brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy and how Jagan had come to power
Needless to say, the film has other characters including TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan and other such characters and he would definitely show these opposition leaders in poor light.
Though RGV has denied that it had the funding by YSR Congress party, sources said it had the financial backing from a young parliament member from Rayalaseema.
On the other hand, Mahi Raghava is quietly making film with Jagan’s padayatra as the central theme, while it also has the elements of how Jagan was shunted out of the Congress, fixed in the CBI cases and sent to jail and how he floated his own party and brought it to power in the state.
Both the films have more or less same concepts, but analysts say RGV, known for his crude style of making films, would play a spoilsport with Mahi’s film, which is definitely more professional in making the film.
“After having seen RGV’s earlier films with political themes, whether it was “Vangaveeti” or “Lakshmi’s NTR” or “Amma Rajyam Lo Kadapa Biddalu” or the latest film “Konda,” one can easily guess how he is going to make them,” a film analyst said.
None of them had any viewers, let alone making money.
“In fact, Konda has fully damaged the reputation and image of Konda couple – Surekha and Murali. So, there is no surprise if RGV ruins the image of Jagan with his theatrics and cheap tricks,” the analyst said.
It is learnt Vyuham is all set for release in a month or two, while Yatra-2 is slated for release early next year.
“If the RGV’s film bombs at the box office with poor ratings, which is most likely to happen, it will have negative impact on Mahi’s film as well,” the analyst added.
