Ram Gopal Varma Blog #195. My Reactions to Reactions

1. Do you ever get bored?
Ans: No. I only bore… many times through my films and sometimes in person.

2. Why don’t you make films with good scripts?
Ans: I was recently called for a meeting with an industrialist who wants to come into films. This is how the conversation went.

Industrialist: Mr.Varma, I understand that the backbone of any film is a good script. So we are investing a lot of money on good scripts.

Me: How can you invest money on a good script? You will know a good script only after the film releases.

Industrialist: What do you mean?

Me: Each and every one of the 120 odd filmmakers who come up with their films every year imagine that they have a damn good script. No filmmaker on earth ever will want to make a film on what he thinks is a bad script or even what he thinks is an average script. So it follows that a good script is only what gets proven at the box office, so you should rephrase your comment and say “I know what a good script is” and that’s what not only you but everyone of us flop filmmakers also believe.

Another investor came to meet me awhile back and the conversation went like this.

Investor: Let’s make a movie like Monsoon Wedding.

Me: But that’s already been made.

Investor: I mean as in something like that.

Me: So you mean if Monsoon Wedding is on a Punjabi wedding and if Hum Aapke Hain Kaun is on a Maharashtrian wedding, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam is on a Gujarati wedding, should we make something on a Oriya or a Rajasthani wedding. Or if you think it’s the pedophile angle which worked in Monsoon Wedding, should we make something on incest?

Investor: Oh ok, I see your point. What if we make a film on a topic which is very popular?

Me: I will ask you a question. If Mira Nair came to you much before she made Monsoon Wedding and she told you that she has 2 scripts to be made for international market, one is called Monsoon Wedding, a film on a Punjabi wedding and the other is Kamasutra on a topic which is popular throughout the world, which one would you have chosen?

Investor: Kamasutra

Me: Well, my case rests. Any films greatness is after the fact. At the project intiaition stage all films are thought to be great by the people who are making it.

3. Why can’t filmmakers make good films as in good content with fresh presentation?
Ans: Good and fresh to whom is the question.

4. When do you personally qualify a film to be successful?
Ans: That was the point of that whole article. I said I can only tell if I liked it or not and never about whether it is successful.

5. What explains nobody liking Aag?
Ans: To start with I don’t know if nobody liked Aag. What is true is that most who have seen Aag did not like it but it’s also true that most did not see it. If everybody had seen Aag and did not like it, the collections would have been still there and made it a commercial success. Aag to start with did not have an opening which just proved a lack of interest in the people to watch it and that was the reason for its commercial failure. The people who have seen it and not liked it, are another matter. The tremendous negative wave against it was even from people who have not seen it. And that’s because it just feels tremendously pleasureable to pull a film down. Critic Mayank Shekar told me that he happened to be at a table in a restaurant where Aag was being torn to shreds by 7 to 8 people sitting at it and it took him some half an hour to realize that none of them have actually seen it.

And as per Sholay’s success is concerned my argument was not on the success of a film but its on the possibility of the filmmaker foreseeing and planning for it. For example, how can the maker of Sholay make “Akeyla” and “Brashtachaar”? And Neo, regarding the math you gave I think you still missed the point of the article. I was not defining success and failure but I was just drawing attention to their relative perspectives.

6. How and why do you think a common man decides to see a film?
Ans: Dumbo, if we in the industry knew it why would we make flops?

7. I can generally tell in advance which film the audience will like or not.
Ans: You should pack your bags and come to Bollywood immediately. The distributors will make you the richest man in the industry.

8. Rangayakamma’s Vishavriksham is trash. Marxists like her spend their creativity and thrive in showing anything ancient and religious in bad light.
Ans: I don’t know about Marxism and neither did I care about her motives. The very fact that she gave a point of view to the antagonists of Ramayana unlike the original writers who sided with only the so-called good guys was what I was impressed with.

One brilliant excerpt from her book goes as follows:

“Kaikeyi:- I want you to send Ram to forest and make my son Bharat the King.
Dasrath:- Have you lost your head? The people of Ayodhya are expecting Ram to be the next King.
Kaikeyi:- Ok then, don’t send him if you don’t care about keeping your word.
Dasrath:- But how can I not keep my word? You should not ask me this.
Kaikeyi:- As a mother I have a right to ask what is best for my son and as a King it’s your right to decide what is good for your people. You can just say ‘no’. But you won’t because you are scared to lose out on not keeping your word as then you will lose out on getting moksham and going to swargam (heaven) and then you as a consequence will lose out on drinking Amrutham and enjoying Rambha, Urvashi and Tilothamma. It’s your call to decide between your responsibility towards the people of Ayodhya and having personal fun in swargam.

If you really think I am selfish and bad in making this demand, how can you even consider my demand weighed against the well-being of your son Ram and the people of Ayodhya? This itself proves that more than Ram or Ayodhya you are concerned about your own selfish ticket to heaven”.

Vishavriskham was not about reviewing Ramayana, it’s about giving a realistic unbiased view point on Ramayana as it is not a just another novel. It’s something which is considered sacred and people follow it blindly and are also expected to follow it without questioning it.

9. You were super intelligent in many answers but you were bullshit in your comments on how to overcome guilt.
Ans: I am so sorry I made you so angry Sir.

10. (a) Don’t twist Satyendra’s logic to make your point.
      (b) Don’t quote Satyendra as he deserves his own life.
      (c). I think Satyendra won’t be comfortable the way you are using him. 
Ans: (a). :)
       (b). :)   :)
       (c). :)   :)   :)

11. Don’t you think even after all your reading and being influenced by Ayn Rand and Satyendra your thought process still lacks depth.
Ans: Actually it lacks surface.

12. How can one study emotions?
Ans: By controlling one’s own.

13. I learnt many things from you.
Ans: I would prefer that you unlearn.

14. I have about 100 book marks. Your blog is the first one.
Ans: I want to be the only one.

15. Satya will remain your best work.
Ans: Ok Sir. Thank you Sir. Any other predictions Sir?

16. How much of a world Satyendra would have seen to philosophize so much?
Ans: Some roads in Vizag and some lanes in Vijayawada.

17. Your cold demeanor and callous attitude remind me of Dawood Ibrahim.
Ans: Beware… he might put out a contract on you.

18. Why do villains have names like Bikhu Yadav, Bhai Thakur, Gaddam Narayana etc instead of Santosh, Ramu etc?
Ans: Larger than life characters demand larger than life names. If Vito Corleone’s name was John David, Godfather would not remain Godfather.

19. You try to actually programme us by preaching about deprogramming.
Ans: My intention is to deprogramme a programme which is reprogramming you by reprogramming you not to be ever deprogrammed into a programme.