The series Mayasabha mixes fact and fiction so wonderfully, even the Andhra titans it’s based on won’t endorse it openly!
A still from the Sony LIV Telugu series Mayasabha
Once in a while, you get to tell your favourite scene to the creator of a film/series that you’ve just watched.
So, I recall to director Deva Katta the dialogue from his brilliantly layered, researched, Telugu political drama, Mayasabha (Sony LIV), where Chaitanya Rao — as MS Rami Reddy, based on Andhra’s top politician, YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR; 1949-2009) — stands before his medical college principal, in Karnataka.
The student’s led a violent protest, incensed by dung smeared on posters of his cinema idol, RC Rao, based on Andhra’s NT Rama Rao (NTR).
The principal says it’s not like they defiled the real person, no? Reddy argues, “What if they did that to an image of your God?”
Principal says, “Is this a war between Gods?” Reddy retorts, “We don’t know what Ram and Krishna looked like. RCR (as in NTR) is that for us. Rajvardhan (for Rajkumar) is the same [for Kannadigas]!”
Perfect mix of religion, politics, and cinema; most plausible down South. Did that happen with YSR who, indeed, studied medicine? “[The scene’s] complete fiction, for a reason,” Katta smiles.
Mayasabha is a semi-factual series on the life and times of friends turned political rivals/enemies, YSR, and Chandrababu Naidu — top contemporary leaders from undivided Andhra Pradesh, with NTR having towered over both.
Deva Katta, the creator of the show. PIC/Photo Division
Katta says, “Naidu became son-in-law of Rao, anyway. That, in a sense, caused the split [between Naidu, and Reddy]. I thought it’d be great, if Reddy was a mad fan [of Rao] as well.”
This ensures omnipresence of old-man Rao/NTR, throughout the nine-episode series, although he “comes in like a tsunami, only towards the end of seventh episode.”
That crucial scene is at a political rally. Rao (Sai Kumar) is still a superstar, with no stake in politics yet.
Onstage is Prime Minister Iravati Basu (loosely modelled on Indira Gandhi), announcing her political return. She gets upstaged by the screen actor, sitting among the star-struck audience.
This scene, Katta recalls, involved thousand junior artistes, outdoor location, plus actors with speaking parts, including Divya Dutta (Iravati), Nassar (playing media-baron, inspired by Ramoji Rao): “We were in the trenches, like at war. The budget was Rs 35-45 lakh per day.”
Katta’s producer (Vijay Krishna) proposed to wrap it in a day. They did. Remembering that sequence, I find it miraculous.
This is an ego clash between the PM and apolitical Rao. It changes the course of Andhra’s politics in the series. As Rao’s entry would have, in the state’s political history itself.
Around 2016, an American-Indian businessman (producer Sree Harsha) had approached Katta to script a House of Cards like show, about Andhra politics, between the 1970s and ’90s.
Sree Harsha had no commercial interest in the movies. He was simply a fan of Katta’s directorial debut, cult romcom, Vennela (2005), and political drama, Prasthanam (2010).
Katta says, “The point was to look at a state that’d had no Opposition, and no regional formations/politics since independence.
“And where Congress would win 42/42 seats, regardless. Even in 1977 [general elections], when Indira Gandhi lost across India, she won 41/42 seats in Andhra.”
In this context, “Given chief ministers, appointed like viceroys by the Queen, termed ‘seat-cover CMs’, and replaced four-five times, within a term — you look at NTR [emerging]. And two young, regional politicians [Reddy, Naidu], who become ministers aged 28-29 years!”
With this as a starting point, what you watch in Mayasabha, instead, is what felt to me like The Motorcycle Diaries of sorts, with two super-fine leads, Aadhi Pinisetty (as Naidu), and Chaitanya Rao (for Reddy) — albeit, separately navigating grassroots to an eventual career in politics.
“Gully se Dilli,” as Katta puts it. And when their paths merge, they could well be Jai-Veeru with Andhra as Sholay.
Mayasabha is, in its essence, seemingly the contemporary history of a wounded state, with all its political complexities, including communism, Maoism, corruption, cronyism…
The opening slate reads, “The story of India is the story of caste.” Wherein Rao, Reddy, Naidu aren’t just surnames.
Dilli/Delhi portions, where the series surveys politics at the Centre, seem strangely corny, in comparison, though — with the PM and her nepotist number-two, going about their day, as if they were B-grade Mogambos from the ’80s. This was deliberate, Katta confesses, “I don’t see Indira Gandhi the way I wrote Iravati Basu. It’s that when you’re glorifying two characters, you have to design an oppressive force, to show villainy.
“You should watch this fully as fiction, taking facts you like, and allowing [creative] licence, for what you don’t!”
That said, among those who ring truest in Mayasabha, NTR and YSR are no more. Their hardcore supporters are around. Naidu is Andhra CM, currently. He went to prison, when YSR’s son YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power.
I wonder if Naidu has seen the series? He comes across looking great, of course!
Katta says, “There are many portions — for instance [the entire track] involving a dancer [and Naidu], which is fiction, for entertainment. He can’t endorse the show.
“Publicly, neither will the top [film] industry folk, who’ve told me they’ve watched it two-three times! As it is, fans of one [political leader] can’t look at the other as hero!”
Already, that makes it among the bravest, desi political dramas, ever; no?
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture.
He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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