STT Big Hit, What About YS Jagan Biopic?

Filmmaker and showrunner Mahi V Raghav is thrilled that his web series Save The Tigers, a first-of-its-kind ‘family and a situational comedy’ is a super success. He talks about his success, Save The Tigers (STT) – Season 2 in his media interaction. Excerpts from the conversation.

Q. Save The Tigers (STT) has become such a big hit.
Mahi: I wanted to first thank the audience for such an amazing response! The success is a great team effort. The Hotstar team has supported us all through without which this success wouldn’t have been possible. Save The Tigers (STT) is a no-brainer and a slice of life series about couple’s and their daily conflicts and battles in relationships. We want to capture the humour through conflicts in a couple. I think this genre is untouched in OTT in Telugu, and that worked big time in our favour. And more importantly we did not take any gender stand. So the fun is generated from your everyday life experiences.

Q. What does this success mean to you?
Mahi: This super success yet again proved that the audience always welcomes and appreciates fresh content. We wanted the whole family to come together to watch and enjoy a clean situational comedy (sitcom) without any inhibitions. The success further pushes us to come up with more ideas on similar lines.

Q. Why did you title the show as Save The Tigers (STT)
Mahi: Generally, men claim themselves to be tigers; but everyone knows who the tiger in the house is (women). But at least for the outside world, man wants to be the tiger. So given that context we thought to name it as Save The Tiger where tigers (men) are getting extinct with a strong growing female resurgence. So it’s a humorous take, and sitcoms don’t have twists, but more about relatability where you feel the story is happening around you or your neighbourhood.

Q. Save The Tigers (STT) Season 2 is announced. When are you commencing it?
Mahi: The Hotstar team is happy with the reviews and the feedback of Save The Tigers (STT). They have green lit the Save The Tigers (STT) – Season 2. We will begin the work soon.

Q. Your production house Three Autumn Leaves is making films consistently for OTT! Any specific reason?
Mahi: Yes! Our bread and butter comes from OTT! Personally, I feel OTT is our livelihood, something that I bet more than films. For me a story is a story – whether theatrical or not. I have been into storytelling in OTT for the last 4 years. It took me two and half years to make two shows – Save The Tigers and Shaitan – so Three Autumn Leaves is consistently looking at delivering two shows every year.

Q. What are your upcoming projects?
Mahi: I have one more web series Shaitan, which will start streaming on Hotstar in June. It’s a crime drama. I directed another film ‘Siddha..Lokam Ela Undi Nayana’. It’s a satirical drama.

Q: When is Yatra 2, a biopic on YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, starting?
Mahi: Yatra 2 will happen because it’s the story that I want to tell and will be definitely told. But I can talk more about it when I have clarity on a time frame, content and specific cast. There’s nothing for me to secretly do or hide about it. But it’s definitely a story that I would attempt at sometime. But at this point of time, it’s premature to comment.