Ram Gopal Varma Question And Answers #5

41.   A.  What does Mani Ratnam think of your cinema? B. What do you think of his cinema?
Ans: A. Nothing     B. Nothing

42. Give me an advice how to become a successful director
Ans: The only advice I will give you is not to ask advice.

43. Are you selfish? Is selfishness a sin? Are you an atheist?
Ans: Yes I am. Nothing is a sin as long as you are not consciously hurting others. Yes I am an atheist.

44. Was Nisha Kothari just a professional decision or something else?
Ans: You can go ahead and imagine what ever entertains you.

45. You forgot your main goal and got interested in the object rather than the subject
Ans: English please!

46. You should go back to being a student and start from Satya again.
Ans: Come here and lead the way, teacher!

47. Stand firmly on your decision for dedicating Sarkar to Copolla
Ans: I can’t because I have got wobbly feet. Jokes apart I agree with the observation made. I made a mistake that I didn’t dedicate it to Puzo because only I know what I have learnt from the novel.

48. My take on why you find it difficult to make good films….
Ans: Don’t think so much. Life is not that serious.

49. I recommended to someone Ram Gopal Varma ka Blog
Ans: Superb. I love the title.

50. I am looking forward to know the stories behind the films you made.
Ans: And I am looking forward to tell them.

Ram Gopal Varma Question And Answers #4

31. AAG is my favourite film.
Ans: Can you please send your picture so that I can frame it and keep it at home.
P.S: Don’t tell anybody but AAG is my favorite film too.

32. Your penchant to contradict yourself is becoming predictable.
Ans: The only exciting thing about life is contradictions and I also have outgrown the anger of Nigga disi adugu.

33. It was always me… I trusted you… I took time and watched your movie, how can I blame you.
Ans: Ahhhh! Wisdom at last.

34. I had fallen in love with Sridevi after watching Kshnam Kshnam.
Ans: I made that movie because I was in love with her.

35. I am in no comments after reading your blog… just background music.
Ans: I love you for this.

36. In one shot in Bhoot after the car leaves the basement the shot changes with the sound of a dolby click.
Ans: That was not a dolby click. It is the igniter sound which Urmila uses on the gas stove. Anyway as long as you felt the impact it does not matter. The psychology of that shot is that the audience would be used to the fact that the shot will be cut after the car left the frame. But the fact that it lingers on automatically puts them into a heightened tension thereby making them anticipate something terrible will happen and that’s why even an ordinary click sound will scare them. Similarly one more example of this is when Urmila comes down into the hall to go into the kitchen for a glass of water. In a wide-angle shot I show the audience that there is no one in the living room. If the camera follows behind her they will be half expecting something to jump on her from of the frame. But the fact they can see the whole room their eyes will be darting all over to see if anyone is hiding somewhere. Meanwhile Urmila takes her time to drink water and comes back. As she goes up the stairs I cut to top angle where the audience can see behind her.

Now as the audience can’t see anything in the back and from Urmila’s expression they can see that there is nothing in the front, they slowly relax as she comes close to the camera into out focus distance thereby expecting the shot to be cut. But as she crosses the camera we reveal Manjeet under the stairs making them jump out of the seat.

37. I don’t know if ‘Govinda Govinda’ theme suited the film Sarkar. Originally it was from your Telugu film.
Ans: Yes. Since I loved that track in the Telugu film and that film flopped I was adamant on tying to ram it down people’s throats once again and I gave a logic to myself that Sarkar is like Lord Krishna which justified the Govinda word. Nobody else got that but as of now it’s the most identifiable sound byte from the Sarkar films. My case rests.

38. How does Sarkar make a living?
Ans: He didn’t tell me.

39. What do you feel when you look at your movies that are 6-7 years old?
Ans: That they are 6-7 years old.


40.  Do you want to be a maverick filmmaker or a business man?
Ans: Neither. I just want to be what I want to be.

Ram Gopal Varma - Question And Answers #3

21. You need to go back to Aamir Khan for one more blockbuster.
Ans: That’s a fantastically fabulous advice. I am amazed I didn’t think of it.

22. Your emotional scenes are half-baked and not well-executed.
Ans: Quite a few people feel the same as you. It could be because I have a subconscious dislike towards people who cannot control their emotions. For me emotional displays are more vulgar than wealth displays. I like to see only strength in my characters, so even when they are in a highly vulnerable situation I still want to see them strong. It’s probably this which results in the scenes not working for people like you. But then I only do what I want to do.

23. You have the nerve to test it whereas others play safe.
Ans: I am like a guy on the beach who suddenly sees this island in the distance and is gripped by a sudden intense desire to reach there. So I jump in even though I am not a swimmer, with this basic assumption that at best I will learn to swim and at worst I will drown. But I hate to stay put on the beach worrying about sharks and storms. I can’t really claim that I play safe because I don’t really care about the dangers. I know that sounds stupid, but that’s me.

24. You beauty is that you accept your flops.
Ans: Not accepting your film as a flop and standing by it is like telling a joke to someone and when he does not laugh to claim that he does not have a sense of humour.
The intention of telling the joke to him in the first place is to make him laugh like the intention of making and releasing a film is for the people to like it.
Standing by a film is also like you proposing to a girl and when she rejects you, you tell yourself that “I love myself, so what if she doesn’t.”

25. Shouldn’t we make films which can make an impact on the world?
Ans: Hello, you are talking to the maker of AAG and also I believe in making films such as what I want to see.

26. I don’t think you’ve made any bad films, some of them just didn’t work.
Ans: Films should only be made with an intention of making them work. Good and bad are very subjective.

27. Are the subtle sense of humour scenes in your films your ideas?
Ans: All ideas in my films whether they are good, bad or ugly, are mine.

28. How do you see RGV doing 10 years from now?
Ans: I don’t think beyond today.

29. Howard Roark did not dislike anyone. He was just indifferent.
Ans: Indifference is worse than dislike.

30. Shiva was an incomplete film. The 2nd half is with me.
Ans: Make it yourself.

Ram Gopal Varma - Question And Answers #2

11. If you like Mario Puzo’s Godfather novel more than the film, why did you dedicate SARKAR to Coppola?
Ans: You are bang on right. That was downright stupid. Thanks for pointing it out.

12. You have to screen the new directors you work with.
Ans: If I knew how to screen good directors so that they can make good films, why would I myself be making bad films?

13. Your films like AAG, Nishabd scared me and I don’t want to watch your films anymore.
Ans: Thanks

14. Be more hardworking. Ideas can’t solve problems. Proper execution can. Give your best as its still in you. Push your boundaries and you will fly again…
Ans: I think you have talent for advising and also maybe poetry.

15. If you see your film before releasing you will definitely know what you have made.
Ans: A film Idea primarily comes out of a certain emotional state of mind. So by the time you go through the entire process, scripting, constructing scenes, editing etc it’s not possible to emote with the finished product the way you felt it the first time. At best you can listen carefully to people to who you show it for the first time before release. But if they chose to lie to you or are scared to tell you the truth, as so often it happens, you have had it. Will detail on this aspect when I start putting on this blog how I came about making each of my films including my magnum opus AAG. What I thought of them when I wanted to make them and what they turned out to be.

16. Einstein said that if someone tells that have not made a mistake then they have never tried anything new in life. You will face challenges when you tread new paths.
Ans: To start with I never consciously have this thought of tying something new or to take up as a challenge to tread different paths. At best I am like a child in a candy store excited to try anything and everything whatever catches my fancy at that time depending on my mood and state of mind. Whatever good or bad comes out of this is completely by accident and not out of intention.

17. Aishwarya’s character is inspired from Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged.
Ans: NO.

18. A study on you would be incomplete without AAG.
Ans: Ahhhhh! You are telling me! The greatest education I have ever had in my life with regards to cinema, my life and my self is due to AAG and its aftermath. I must have had one million twenty seven lakh thirty thousand and twenty three advises, and criticisms not including the ones I deduced myself. Now you can see how much more richer I am. Want any charity?

19. You should have a provision in your blog for short films from budding filmmakers.
Ans: Yes.

20. You are retarded. You talk crap in News Channels. You might become the next Tim Sebastian.
Ans: I am, I do. I don’t know who he is.

Ram Gopal Varma - Question And Answers #1

1. Can you give me your email id? I want to bring to your notice important socio-political issues.
Ans: Socio-political issues are not important to me.

2. Sometimes you don’t stick to your words.
Ans: Actually most times I don’t.

3. Was it your idea to change Shiva’s climax and end scenes? They didn’t work at all.
Ans: Yes and the obvious reason for that is I thought they will work better.

4. I find RAAT path breaking.
Ans: I find it boring.

5. If you don’t have light moments such as of Tanisha’s character in Sarkar Raj the film will make people drowsy.
Ans: I find light moments drowsy.

6. Did you watch Good Shepherd?
Ans: No.

7. I hope you will make Fountainhead one day.
Ans: It’s my dream.

8. What state of mind were you when you were making junkies like AAG?
Ans: Drugged with arrogance.

9. Please make commercially successful films.
Ans: Thanks for the advice. It didn’t occur to me.

10. Why are you so fascinated by dark themes? Even your blog has a dark background.
Ans: Well.