How often do you have an exalted Master with volumes and volumes of first-person writing that’s vivid, intimate and deeply personal?
So this became the narrative voice. Luckily, the SRF archive which we combed top to bottom contained a number of period recordings of Yogananda’s own voice, which we used as often as possible. For the rest of Yogananda’s narration, we were blessed to have a beautiful performance by Bollywood star Anupam Kher.
SK: The campaign painted yoga as a “love cult,” and although no evidence was found, damage was done. He made the decision to return to India. You depict this moment in your film. What was your intention?
PR: Epic films often follow a three-act structure, where the second act forces the protagonist to face a major setback. We felt that we needed that in this story. It couldn’t all be up in the clouds with harps and violins. Some of it needed to be mired in the muck of everyday life. The Hindus call this “Maya” –– the material world, which entangles us in its web of distractions and temptations. Any of us in a human body, including Yogananda, is subject to these forces. And it was very important for us to humanize the Guru, by showing him handling struggles and overcoming adversity. He faced prejudice and bigotry as a brown-skinned foreigner coming to a predominately white Christian nation.
He and his teachings threatened certain people, so they slung mud. This era marked the birth of “yellow journalism,” and the rag papers owned by the Hearst Syndicate went to town. They hired undercover investigators to try an infiltrate the yoga cults.
Whether they found evidence or not, they printed lascivious and racy stories to sell as many papers as possible, tarnishing Yogananda among others. But what really broke Yogananda’s heart was a betrayal, around that same time, by one of his closest friends and disciples. He considered giving it all up and returning to India for good. Luckily (for us) he returned to fight another day.
SK: It took almost 5 years to make the film. What was it like for you?
PR: In a word, transformative.
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