It’s baffling that the makers of Ajey: The Untold Story of a Yogi, which is inspired by the life of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, insist it’s not a political drama. Dilip Jha, who has written the Anant V Joshi and Paresh Rawal-starrer, views the biopic as a personal story. “When I say it’s not a political film, what I mean is that it doesn’t only cover Yogi ji’s political life,” he begins. “His political path is known. What will be new for the audience is the personal side of his life,” emphasises Jha, who previously co-wrote MS Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016).
Ravindra Gautam’s directorial venture is adapted from Shantanu Gupta’s book, The Monk Who Became Chief Minister. Jha travelled extensively across Uttarakhand for the script.
Dilip Jha and Yogi Adityanath
He recalls, “I travelled to his birthplace Panchur, Kotdwar where he did his college, and many other places. I visited a school where one of Yogi ji’s college friends now teaches. To reach there, I had to go down a winding road for about 15 minutes, and the climb back took nearly 30 minutes. I was completely out of breath. Then I learned that as a child, Yogi ji would do this five to 10 times a day, like everyone else in the region. It struck me that such a tough life makes someone not only physically strong, but also strong-willed.”
Biopics in India tend to be reverential in tone and whitewash their subjects. Ask Jha whether Ajey suffers from the same problem, and he retorts, “Whether it is MS Dhoni or Yogi ji, these biopics are made because they are respected and popular [personalities]. So, the film has to show their success stories. But there is absolutely no need to whitewash the subject. I can assure you that we have dealt with all the tough questions that one might think of head-on, instead of whitewashing them. I have chosen the incidents that helped me build Yogi ji’s character — for instance, how he was troubled by goons early on and that shaped his ideology of being strict against them. Similarly, the black fever incident paved the path for him to live his life serving others.”
