In 2019, Vivek Oberoi headlined PM Narendra Modi, a biopic on the Indian Prime Minister, thus splashing on screen what many knew all along — that politics and Hindi movies had become strange bedfellows in the past few years. Three years on, a biopic on another political figure is in the works. Actor-politician Ravi Kishan will star in and produce a movie on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Kishan, who is currently a Member of Parliament from the Gorakhpur constituency, campaigned for Adityanath in the Assembly elections held earlier this year.

For Kishan, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017, Adityanath’s rise in politics has been inspiring. “I will [also] direct the movie. It is about the rise of Yogi ji, the monk, his success story and his political reign as chief minister. It will cover other political parties, too. My writers recently travelled to Gorakhpur, where he started [his journey] from, to begin their research. The movie will be a mix of fiction and reality,” says the actor-producer.

Adityanath, who has become a political force as part of the current dispensation, was born Ajay Singh Bisht in Uttar Pradesh. Around the 1990s, he left his home to join the Ayodhya Ram temple movement. A disciple of Mahant Avaidyanath, the chief of the Gorakhnath Math, in his initial years, he was made the head seer after Avaidyanath’s demise in 2014.

Kishan says that the movie will begin from Adityanath’s time at the Gorakhnath Math, subsequently tracing how he — at 26 — became the youngest member of the 12th Lok Sabha. “The scripting is on. I have spoken to Yogi ji about the movie, and he has given his approval,” he adds.

While the biopic was scheduled to begin later this year, Kishan says it will roll after his other projects are complete. The team is utilizing the time to intensely research the subject. “I recently completed a schedule of Capsule Gill in London. Before that, I was shooting for 1922 Pratikaar Chauri Chaura.”