Actor Pratik Gandhi, who shot to fame with his portrayal of Harshad Mehta in the series Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story, is set to essay the role of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the latter’s biopic, to be directed by Mahi V Raghav, a source close to the film unit confirmed to Silverscreen India, on condition of anonymity.
The upcoming biopic will be a sequel to the director’s 2019 biopic Yatra, which featured actor Mammootty as late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s father. The Telugu film was based on the padayatra (pilgrimage by foot) undertaken by the late politician to meet people across the state in 2003, following which he won the general elections the next year.
Speaking about the upcoming sequel, the source said, “It will take some time for the film to take off. The director has two other projects to be completed in between. A Telugu film with actor Shraddha Srinath, which will be a social satire, and a crime drama for one of the top three OTTs, which is going to be shot from January 5, 2022. The latter is currently in the pre-production stage. But the director is very clear on doing Yatra 2 after these commitments and it is a confirmed project.”
The source added, “The project will take off sometime in the next year. The director has an idea, but he has to work on it extensively to complete the script.”
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Another source in the know, also requesting anonymity, said, “The director had this plan for the biopic since 2019, but he wanted to wait until Jagan Mohan had been in office for a couple of years. Initially, they had planned to cast either Suriya or Nagarjuna. But since it will be a pan-Indian film, Pratik Gandhi has been roped in. The film is expected to be made in all the south Indian languages and Hindi. The other cast members are yet to be decided.”
The source added that the sequel will focus on the 3,648 km-long padayatra undertaken by Jagan Mohan for 341 days, which ended in 2019.