JOIN USRajiv Vijayakar speaks to maverick filmmaker and producer, Ram Gopal Varma, whose latest release was the Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt starrer, ‘Department’, on his approach to films, his fetish for themes of horror or violence, sequels and more.
A maverick with a streak of narcissism, a cynic to the point of being a cinematic iconoclast — that’s Ram Gopal Varma aka Ramugaru alias RGV, the man who, according to his detractors, is now a mere parody of what he was as a filmmaker.
When was his last hit as a director? It was Phoonk in 2008, a modest star-less horror film that grossed in multiples of the investment. When did his company, known officially as The Factory, spin its last winner? At the box office, it was Darna Mana Hai, in 2006! But the factory goes on, spinning a minimum of one movie a year, regardless of the outrage (Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, Nishabd), flak (Sarkar Raj, Not A Love Story) or disastrous outcome (Department, his latest take on underworld violence).
Like Dev Anand and some others, however, RGV puts his films behind him as soon as the final mix is done. The man behind money-spinners like Rangeela and Bhoot and acclaimed films like Shiva (his Hindi debut), Satya and Sarkar, languidly reclines in the office of his post-production outfit as he drawls, “It is for people to react after that, yeah.” “Yeah” comes as a suffix after every reply of his is complete, as if to convince himself of his own truth. Confusingly, he adds, “I do not care whether people like my phillum or not. But I do care about the reasons they have. That gives me an insight into their perspective. Yeah.”
But he does not tweak his films to their tastes, right? The key areas where the audience normally protests are in graphic violence, the crass elements in item songs, dances and dialogues and the continuous use of gimmicks like weird camera angles and outrageous content.
“My films are a function of my sensibilities and state of mind at any given time,” he says with indifference. “I obviously want people to watch my movies, but what they like is not in my control. The audience is not one entity and I cannot do films that everyone will like since the only aspect I can ensure is that I can make a film that I like. Of course, I can try and copy a film that has worked with everyone, but I only do films that excite me. Yeah.”
Every film that he has produced and/or directed has been based on his own idea (his Hindi films have a tally of around 40, starting from the 1990 Shiva; they were preceded by some Telugu films). “Every film is an idea to start with. Like Department deals with an illegal unit formed by the government to tackle crime that cannot be dealt with by normal forces of law. Their methods are unauthorised and in effect, they too are no better than criminals,” says the man who has a special predilection for underworld and horror sagas, despite early experimentation with diverse themes like student unrest, suspense sagas, romantic musicals, road movies and even a crime comedy, all with varying degrees of success.
Of his cast, he declares that Amitabh Bachchan, who he has directed in Sarkar, Sarkar Raj, Darna Zaroori Hai, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag and Nishabd, “heavily inspires” him. “He is such a versatile actor who always goes beyond what one offers him. Yeah,” declares Varma, who says that he has repeated Sanjay Dutt 15 years after the comedy Daud, because he likes to believe that Dutt is brilliant in intense characters. Rana Daggubati, he says, fits with the style of his character in the film.
Does he not have a yen for casting southern actors in Hindi films from the days he made Telugu films? Revathi, Nagarjuna, Amala and Mohanlal join hands with his Mumbai protégés and discoveries such as Urmila Matondkar, Jiah Khan, Aftab Shivadasani, Nisha (now Priyanka) Kothari, Randeep Hooda, Prashant Raj, Mohit Ahlawat and more. In his latest enterprise, he has introduced Madhu Shalini from down south too. “I like to give new talents a break,” he says with concise evasiveness, adding his normal suffix, “Yeah.”
Take two
Coming to sequels, RGV has done Sarkar 2, Darna Zaroori Hai and Phoonk 2. He is planning a sequel to Ab Tak Chhappan, besides working on Sarkar 3. He even made his own take on Sholay, was egoistic enough to call one of his movies Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, and after deciding that his director had messed up James, remade it within two years as the even more disastrous Shiva (his second film with that title). How does his work in this tried-and-tested terrain reconcile with his claimed indifference to audience likes or dislikes? “It’s all about what excites me at a moment,” he repeats. “Later, I may look back and ask myself why I went in for it, like I did when I remade James.”
And what’s with his fetish for objectionable violence like nails driven into a man’s head or someone chopping an enemy’s fingers to small bits? “If the subject that excites me needs to be treated that way, I will do it. I like films that take risks, that are edgy and cross the line of so-called acceptable behaviour. If I started thinking of such things, I wouldn’t have been able to make nine out of every 10 films I have made,” he declares.
A top composer has declared him as an ‘anti-music’ filmmaker. Why does he give such short shrift to music and yet lace his films with needless and cacophonous item songs and noisy rants? “Most of my films that have made an impact had little room for music, except Rangeela. So I cannot force songs into them,” says the man.
He would rather not talk about the changes in trends and industry ethics in the 22 years he has been around. “The changes have come gradually, so you hardly feel any dramatic shift. Yeah,” he says.
Among his forthcoming films, why is Nana Patekar not taking credit for directing the sequel of Ab Tak Chhappan? “He is not directing the film. I am introducing Eijaz Ghulam. Yeah,” he states. But RGV is set to break new ground in making what he terms an “international” film on Mumbai’s 26/11 terror. At the moment, this is the project exciting him the most.
The factory machinery is whirring at full speed. Audiences are free to watch his films, applaud them, or debunk them. Yeah.