Malayalam superstar Mammootty, who plays the late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in Telugu film Yatra, is in Hyderabad to promote the film. “First of all, it’s not a biopic of YSR’s life, but it is based on his historic walkathon,” clarifies the actor, adding, “The story revolves around a number of incidents that happened during the walk.”
So what prompted the veteran actor to sign on the dotted line? “The script and the story appealed to me. They came with the entire script and I felt confident that the producer would complete the film without any delay,” says Mammootty, proudly adding, “I have introduced more than 70 directors in my career and even though Mahi V. Raghav is only two films old, he is still experienced.”
Interestingly, the actor has returned to Telugu films after a long time. “I didn’t get any good offers, else I was ready to do them,” he says frankly.
Talking about the upcoming film, Mammootty says that Yatra captures many emotions. “There are many incidents that happened during the walk, where YSR met the people and found solutions to their problems,” he says. Explaining that he did not attempt to imitate YSR in the film, the veteran actor shares, “I didn’t mimic YSR, I only played my character. But you may see similarities between the two.”
He adds that he did not do any research before doing the film. “I was not supposed to do any research. I simply liked my role and accepted it,” he says.
Not surprisingly, Mammootty dubbed in his own voice for the Telugu film. “Telugu is very close to Malayalam and many words are similar. So I didn’t face any problem. The only thing I had to correct was the accent, otherwise it was easy,” says Mammootty, adding that he will continue to do films in Telugu if he gets good projects here.
