Playing a political leader who is still relevant in the political situation is a very risky proposition as all the negativity that is associated with the politician gets transcended to the actor. The same thing is happening with Malayali superstar Mammootty now.
Mammootty played YS Rajasekhar Reddy in Yatra which has worked against his image in the Telugu market.
Prior to that, Mammootty was a big name in the OTT space with good Malayali films to his backing. His films used to have some patronage in the Telugu OTT space.
But with the arrival of Yatra, the situation lopsided. The customary negativity that is seen on YSR due to the relevance of YS Jagan got transcended onto Mammotty for playing YSR on screen. He is facing trolls and memes after playing YSR on screen and again becoming relevant in AP politics before 2024 polls with Yatra 2.
After gaining traction in the OTT space with his content backed films and the reputation he carried from the Malayalam film industry, Mammotty has started to face an adverse effect in the Telugu OTT space after playing YSR in Yatra. His image is getting disembodied with the YCP affiliation due to all the negativity on the party.
The makers of Yatra had no other option but to go for other language star and they luckily got ahold of a veteran like Mammootty. But for Mammootty’s disarray, a part of YCP’s negativety is getting rubbed onto him due the political equations in Andhra Pradesh.
