New Delhi: After a long and perilous fight against Central Board of Film Certification, Ajey: The Untold Story of a Yogi, based on the life of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, is finally set to release in theatres. The film was caught in a censorship tussle after the CBFC refused clearance, insisting that the makers first obtain a No Objection Certificate from the UP CM’s office.
Ajey, now slated to be released on 19 September, is based on Shantanu Gupta’s book The Monk Who Became Chief Minister, and stars Anant Joshi as Yogi Adityanath.
“It is not a political film. It has no bulldozers,” director Ravindra Gautam told ThePrint with a laugh, before mentioning that his intent was to make an inspirational film, and not a divisive or communal one. The film has no mention of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a controversial outfit founded by Yogi Adityanath in 2002, even though the book mentions it.
The long legal battle lasted for almost four months as CBFC first refused certification to the film and eventually ordered 29 cuts.
The film’s trailer, released on 4 September, shows how a young middle class man, Ajay Singh Bisht, born in Uttarakhand, becomes a monk and then the chief minister of the most populous state of India. The film’s title is derived from the chief minister’s name before he took on monkhood.
“Nowhere in the Cinematograph Act 1952 it is mentioned that filmmakers have to get an NOC. It is unconstitutional and even the court said, since we have rights to the book, there is no need for it. The board rejected my film without even seeing it,” said Gautam.
On 25 August, a division bench of justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale watched the film in court before allowing its release. “There is no obscenity. Absolutely nothing. Even considering today’s OTT standards, this is a very mild version,” the court said.
A ‘human’ film
Gautam, who has also directed the second season of the Sony Liv political drama Maharani starring Huma Qureshi, studied in Lucknow and closely witnessed student elections, which shaped his fascination with the subject.
Maharani is loosely based on events in Bihar in the 1990s when then-CM Lalu Prasad Yadav made his wife Rabri Devi his successor.
“My focus is on the person beyond the public persona that we have access to. Everyone saw Maharani as a political story, but I saw it as a husband-wife story. Even for Ajey, it was the story of the 22-year-old boy born in the middle of nowhere and with no political background,” said Gautam.
Yogi Adityanath earned a graduate degree in science from Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (HNBGU) in Uttarakhand, before leaving his home in the 1990s to join the Ram temple movement. He also became a disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath of the Gorakhnath temple.
After Avaidyanath’s death in 2014, Yogi Adityanath took over as the head of the Gorakhnath Math, a post he still holds. He entered politics on the directions of his guru in 1998 and at 26 became the youngest Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur. He went on to win elections for the next five terms, before taking charge as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2017.
“You have to humanise the person. If you make him a god-like person, people might clap for it but they will not be able to relate to him. This is a very emotional film,” said Dilip Jha, who has co-written the film with Priyank Dubey.
The movie was shot in Lucknow and also Gorakhpur, Uttarakhand ,and Mumbai, covering major incidents in Adityanath’s life.
For Jha, the fascination was about how a young man, who is deeply attached to his family, gave up everything to become a monk.
“If he has a glamorous persona, make him glamorous. If he is an introvert, make him speak less. That is my primary principle in writing biopics,” said Jha, who also co-wrote the screenplay of M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016), based on the life of former India cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
In his journey of researching for Ajey, Jha came across many elements of the chief minister which helped him humanise the persona for the film.
“I met his sister’s family and college friends and learned a lot about him. He loves his milk coffee, and would always have several cups of it, even now. He also loves wearing dark glasses, something he saw his father, a forest ranger, often wear,” the writer said.
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The harbinger of change
When Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister of UP in 2017, there was a resurgence in debates about an ascetic monk becoming a political figure. But for Jha, it is not a matter of discussion or debate.
“Yogis have been the people who have always had political presence. Look at Chanakya — it is not an anomaly that he is a monk in politics,” said Jha. In his screenplay, he also focuses on the relationship between Adityanath and his guru and political mentor, Avaidyanath, which is portrayed by Paresh Rawal.
Another point of focus is Adityanath’s relentless fight for making society safe for women. Jha and Gautam found out how the CM fought for the rights of women even during his college days.
“He is firmly against local goons in Uttar Pradesh. He too had suffered because of it, and that’s why his administration is against it. And it also showed in our own experience shooting the film,” said Gautam.
He explained that there has been a sea change in how they shoot for films after Adityanath came to power.
“We would be worried for our female colleagues who would get harassed, or a local gunda would demand money for shooting in his area. Now, no one would dare do it. My nieces and relatives who live in Uttar Pradesh feel safe being out in the evening,” said Gautam.
Jha and Gautam however have not met the chief minister during the course of making the film or researching for it.
“The information on the book, and our own travels from his place of birth to college, to meeting his friends and family gave us everything we needed to make the film,” said Jha.
The film’s journey started in 2022, when Shantanu Gupta was in the US for an event and met actor Ajay Mengi and producer Ritu Mengi. The two launched Samrat Cinematics, a production house under whose banner the movie will be released.
But after the tussle with CBFC, they are left disheartened.
“They feel like they might return to the US, because of the experience they had in getting the film released,” said Gautam.
But for now, the producers, writers, and the director are gearing up for the release.
“I guarantee that when you walk in to watch the film, you would be pleasantly surprised, and it would be nothing like what you might expect a film on Adityanath to be like,” said Jha.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)