Ram Gopal Varma Interview

Ram Gopal Varma interview February 7th, 2008Related|Filed Under (he says Sarkar Raj is releasing in May) LINK Ram Gopal Varma is a changed person. No longer willing to make films at the drop of a hat. No more the dial-a-quote wizard, this maverick movie- maker has mellowed, though not melted down. In a no-holds-barred interview, Ramu finally speaks out after months of silence. Where have you been hiding? I was shooting my new film Contract in Mumbai and Bangkok, besides shooting the balance and post-production of Sarkar Raj, which releases in May. People believed you’d gone into hiding after Aag? Why would I hide? I’ve made flops before. I didn’t speak because there was nothing to say. I went into a phase of introspection. I now feel I was making films lately with a certain frivolous, even callous, attitude. I was also making press statements for effect, for shock value. I decided to keep quiet for a while. Now it’s high time that I stopped talking stupidly. Why do you think your utterances were stupid? I want to make films that excite me and which, hopefully, will excite the audience. Once you start getting addicted to media interviews, you tend to forget you are a filmmaker, and not meant to entertain people through your interviews. I made Aag out of arrogance. I think I just wanted to be cocky by remaking a film I loved and respected. Has Aag changed you? Yes. But I don’t blame anyone else for going wrong in Aag. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan trusted my vision and intention. But I feel my intention was wrong. Aag was a three-year-old dream. Many changes happened. I was told by lawyers to change the story because my Sholay had to be different from the original. I lost my way along the way. Aag ended up being a caricature of Sholay. You admit that? When people around you keep saying it’s turning out well, you tend to get carried away. Aag was a special flop for me. Just as Sholay was a benchmark, Aag was a landmark for me. If Aag wasn’t attached to Sholay it’d have been just another flop. But because of the Sholay factor, my blunder was magnified manifold. It was time for me to take time off to think deeply. You sound different! Eventually you are what you are. Now I’ve become more intense and objective. And I’m very clear about what I want to do. I was making callous cocky statements. But somewhere I felt I was going wrong. I’d never again jump into a project because it sounded good on the idea level. I’ll only do films with scripts, and with full objectivity and make sure that it has the potential to get an audience. Nobody realises mistakes until he gets a solid slap. Aag was that slap. Making a success isn’t in my hands. But making sure that I make films with objectivity is something I can do, and I will. Is Contract in that spirit? Yes. I made a conscious decision to make it with newcomers. There are 40 characters in this underworld film, all played by unknown faces. When I took Manoj Bajpai in Satya or Vivek Oberoi in Company I wasn’t launching stars. I used them because they were right for the

roles. But when the media and my associates started praising me, it went to my head. I began seeing myself as a star-maker. I went into the trip of launching new actors. When I signed Mohit Ahlawat and Prashant Raj, I presumed they were stars before the film was made. I was sucked more and more into a fantasy land. Hence the sabbatical. Now I’m far more clearheaded. You’ve supposedly gone from riches to rags. I was never rich in the first place. My finances are nobody’s business. Do you feel isolated? I was always a lonely person, yet earlier there were more people around me. That’s because I had many productions on the floors. Right now, I’m doing only one film. Will you give continue to give chances to spotboys to turn into directors? I didn’t give chances. I took chances. Now I won’t sign anyone on a whim and success would be their responsibility. No point in making films nobody’s going to see. I’ve changed in my attitude. Today I wonder if I would’ve made Daud after Satya! Today I know why I’m directing Contract. In 1997, when I made Satya, there were 108 underworld shootouts in Mumbai. Today there are far less. The profile of the underworld has changed. I want to explore that change. The new developments in the underworld have given birth to new characters. I’ve used new faces because these faces reflect the new order. Does this project take you back to your Satya days? I still continue to make films only for myself. It’s a myth you can make films for the audience. You don’t know who the audience is. So my films are going to be far more experimental than before. Contract takes me into areas I haven’t gone into before.