Jiiva on playing Y S Jagan in ‘Yatra 2’: Mammootty sir’s advice eased my pressure

Jiiva discusses his role as Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the Telugu biopic Yatra 2 and his new venture, Deaf Frogs. Directed by Mahi V Raghav, Yatra 2 releases in theatres on February 8

Jiiva has portrayed a range of characters in his two-decade acting career, from a man next door to a superhero in Tamil films. He was also cast as former cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth in the Hindi film 83. He was surprised when asked if he would be willing to act as Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the Telugu biopic Yatra 2. “I am always game to take up films that require me to be an actor rather than a star,” says Jiiva, speaking to The Hindu about the film scheduled to release in theatres on February 8.

He reveals that a photo shoot was how it all began. “A couple of years ago, I purchased new cameras and lights, and did a photoshoot, which was shared on my Instagram account. A week later, Gnanavel Raja (producer, Studio Green) got in touch. He knew Mahi V Raghav, director of Yatra 2. I learnt that the photographs made the director consider me in the role of Y S Jagan.”

Jiiva had two concerns — he did not know Telugu and was hesitant about portraying a present-day political leader. He sought the advice of Mammootty, who had played the late chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in Yatra. “Mammootty sir told me, ‘why not? We are actors. We might act as a politician in one film, a cop in the next and maybe a murderer in another. That does not mean we are a politician, cops or a murderer’. That took the pressure off my shoulders.”

Jiiva watched Yatra and was impressed by Mahi Raghav’s craftsmanship. Politics aside, he felt that the director had narrated a human story convincingly. “For two to three years that I was working on 83 — since the film shoots were paused during the pandemic — I was absorbed in getting Krishnamachari Srikkanth’s body language right. After that, I thought Yatra 2 would be an interesting film to take up.” Jiiva’s Telugu-speaking neighbour accompanied him to the story narration of Yatra 2. “He was impressed with the dialogues and the emotions.” 

The hurdle of being unfamiliar with Telugu remained. “I can understand a few words and sentences but the political speeches were tough. The more I saw the video footage of Y S Jagan, I realised I had a tough job.” Weeks before the shooting schedule, Jiiva trained with a tutor. “I would learn my Telugu lines all morning; post lunch I would record everything I had learnt in my studio. We would then listen to the recording and make corrections.” When the shooting schedule began, Jiiva could pull it off. However, he admits that he did not dub for the film since he could not crack the Kadapa accent.

Apart from the physicality and the language, Jiiva also had to understand the character’s psyche. The actor never met the AP chief minister but the ample video footage helped. “Mahi’s story is about a father, son, a promise and how people connect with both the father and the son. A predominant reference point was The Godfather 2, in terms of the tone of the narrative. There are a few silent shots in which the emotions are conveyed through the eyes; and not everything is dialogue-oriented. I also found the conflict points interesting, like in The Godfather series and Thevar Magan.”

While Jiiva is keen to see how the Telugu audience will receive the film, he is also open to scripts that come to his family’s production house Super Good Films established by his father R B Choudary.