New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s life journey is set to feature on the big screen in the film Ajey: The Untold Story of a Yogi, due for release later this year. The film is based on Shantanu Gupta’s 2017 book The Monk Who Became Chief Minister.
Going by its teaser, which was released last week, the film portrays the journey of a boy from Uttarakhand who first becomes a monk and then chief minister of the most populous state of India. The film’s title comes from Yogi Adityanath’s birth name, Ajay Singh Bisht.
Actor Anant Joshi essays the role of Adityanath, whereas popular cinema star and former BJP MP Paresh Rawal’s voice can be heard as narrator in the 49-second teaser.
Speaking to ThePrint about the movie, Gupta said: “The movie is about the life journey of Yogi Adityanath, till he became a chief minister. I wrote a book in 2017, The Monk Who Became Chief Minister, which got a huge response that time as Adityanath had become the UP CM that year and people wanted to read about him.”
Shantanu’s book was published by Bloomsbury and hit bookstores on 25 August, 2017.
“Then, in several book festival events, I was invited to talk about my book. Once attending such an event in Noida, I met Bollywood director Madhur Bhandarkar, who asked me to focus on making a film on this book. Since then, I started thinking about it.”
Shantanu further said that in 2020, during the pandemic, one of his friends from Bombay, Priyank Dubey, who is a co-writer of Ajey, came to live with him in Noida. “Dubey has been associated with the film industry. It was then that we started working on this movie.”
“In 2022, I was in the US for an event relating to my book and met Ajay Mangi and Ritu Mangi, the producers of this movie. After listening to my idea, they showed interest in producing the film,” he said. Later, they launched Samrat Cinematics, a production house under whose banner the movie will be released.
However, the film has no mention of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a controversial outfit founded by Yogi Adityanath in the year 2002, long before he took the CM’s chair in UP, ThePrint has learnt, despite that the outfit does find a brief mention in Gupta’s book.
According to sources in the UP government, Adityanath distanced himself from the outfit after he became CM, which is why the film’s writers have avoided that controversial part of his life. Shishir Singh, director, information & PR, Uttar Pradesh, said the “state government has nothing to do with this movie”. “We have not been asked for any permission related to it. We only heard that it is based on Shantanu Gupta’s book,” he told ThePrint.
Also Read: Hindu Yuva Vahini helped Yogi into CM’s chair. Now its Gorakhpur office lies deserted
Making of Ajey: The Untold Story of a Yogi
Shantanu said that after getting the nod of producers in 2022, they met film professionals to work on the production. Ravindra Gautam, who directed the web series Maharani 2, a political drama, was approached for direction.
“Maharani, a political web drama, got a positive response from the public so we approached its director to work on our movie too. We wanted a person who has worked on political dramas earlier. Then, we also approached Dilip Bachchan Jha, a Bollywood screenplay writer, who wrote the movie along with Priyank. We wanted a screenplay according to the standards of Bollywood,” he told ThePrint.
Priyank said that “till 2020, we had basic level of information because of the book”. Adding, “When we got the nod from the producers, then we approached a team of professionals for the movie in 2022 and 2023. After finalising them, we started shooting in 2024”.
The movie was shot in Uttar Pradesh (particularly in Lucknow and also Gorakhpur), Uttarakhand (Garhwal region) and Mumbai.
“My roots are in Bhadohi (eastern Uttar Pradesh) but I was born and brought up in Rishikesh, so I understand the culture of both UP and Uttarakhand. It helped me in writing the story as Yogi ji also has an eastern UP and Uttarakhand connection,” Priyank told ThePrint.
Anant Joshi also too roots in Uttarakhand. “He is a pahadi, so this helped him get into the character. Still, he worked really hard to understand Yogi ji‘s dialect and personality. His Uttarakhand connection helped him,” Priyank added.
“During our research, we also found that Yogi ji has a big following on the ground, particularly in rural areas. I remember an interesting incident while doing ground work in one village. We saw that some people were putting the mitti (mud) taken from Yogi ji‘s foot to their forehead after he passed from there (logon ko unke pairon ki dhool ko mathey se lagaate hue dekha). This shows how people revere him,” he said.
According to Priyank, the film Ajey also shows how Adityanath launched a campaign against ‘mafia raj’ in Gorakhpur. “This film will reveal the journey of a young saint of Gorakhpur math who decided to come out for public service. What circumstances influenced him to enter politics are also mentioned in the movie,” he told ThePrint.
The film also stars Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua, a Bhojpuri star and BJP leader, and actors Pavan Malhotra, Rajesh Khattar, Ajay Mengi, Garima Vikrant Singh and Sarwar Ahuja.
Lead star Joshi first became known for playing the title role in the series Virgin Bhasskar and its sequel. He has also worked on the adult web series Gandi Baat. In Bollywood, he has played small roles in movies like Kathal and 12th Fail.
Once released, Ajey will be available in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. The release date has yet to be finalised but producers are expecting it to hit theatres in the second half of this year.
“Yogi Adityanath’s life is filled with challenges, resilience, and transformation. Our film presents his journey in an engaging and dramatic manner, bringing to life the events that shaped him. With an ensemble cast and a gripping narrative, we are excited to bring this inspirational story to audiences worldwide,” producer Ritu Mengi said in a statement.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: With Yogi as CM, his Hindu Yuva Vahini has all but disappeared from Gorakhpur
