HILARRIOUS Interview of RAMU -

Though his last few films have not left any impact on audiences or at box office Ram Gopal Varma is not the one who will get bogged down. He carved a niche with his genres of dark yet successful films when Indian cinema was still in the age of actors moving around the trees. With the strings of hits and flops in his kitty so far, RGV is all set with his next venture a sequel to Phoonk under his production banner. Interestingly, unlike Phoonk the sequel Phoonk 2 has been directed by debutant Milind Gadagkar who has once been his assistant.

In a conversation with Ram Gopal Varma, the filmmaker talks about his art of filmmaking, his inclination towards horror films and his films in the pipeline.

What made you take the decision of not directing the sequel of Phoonk when you had directed the original film?

Honestly, I had no time for the sequel though I would have loved to make Phoonk 2. I was busy with Rann and Rakta Charitra followed up next. Nonetheless Milind Gadagkar and me had loads of discussion on the storyline. And I feel he was the apt person for direction for he carried the story further with necessary dimensions.

So, Is Phoonk 2 scarier than the first one? Are you satisfied with Milind Gadagkar's creation?

Well, I think horror movie rides on the moments in the film rather than story. So, I have a strict formula of making horror films concentrating more on camera moves rather than narrating the story that kills the intention of a scary movie. Milind too has kept these things in mind and made the film. It has definitely the kind of movie I had envisioned.

Horror seems to have been your favourite genre. Why?

I like to scare people since childhood. I would hide and bring the chill down the spine of my family members. So, fascination for horror movies got inculcated very naturally in me. As I said, earlier, it's those scary moments, which make a film success rather than the story. For instance, take the case of Bhoot which I feel is remake or advanced version of my debut film Raat. And more interestingly, Bhoot didn't have a story as such; I played with the emotional moments where audiences were on the edge of their seat waiting for the ghost 'Manjeet' to come next. I didn't narrate the story of Manjeet in the beginning. It was just scary moments involving Ajay Devgn and Urmila Matondkar.

One of the horror filmmakers recently commented 'its easy to scare single person in the hall, the deal is when you scare the crowd in the theatre, pointing towards your promotional strategy of organizing the famous scaring contest. What's' your take on that?

Well, the whole purpose was to market the film, which was served for nobody would turn up to watch the film alone even for a whooping amount. Nobody from our end would have afforded it (chuckles).

So, can we expect a horror film from you in the near future?

Yes I'm planning a 3D horror film. It's still under scripting stage. I'm damn excited about it.

Your upcoming venture God and Sex is created buzz since news has broken. Tell us in detail about it?

God and Sex would be an insight on ashrams of godmen and is loosely based on Swami Nityanand sex scandal. It's about how these godmen maintain a certain godly image but fall prey to sex. Through my film I will try to expose the life behind the doors of these godmen.

Vivek Oberoi is quite close to Swami Nityanand, are you thinking of taking inputs from him or casting him for one of the roles?

I won't approach Vivek for any inputs in case of making this movie as he is on the other side. Neither I'm interested to cast Vivek in the film.

What according to you went wrong with Rann?

See, I can give the various reasons like lack of interest among the audiences, poor promotional strategies or sheer luck. Like I feel, Sarkar, I think had the most ridiculous story ever. If one observes carefully Rashid in the beginning comes tells Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan) 'Maal Aa Raha Hai' (material is on the way) but even by the end the story, nobody is bothered about what exactly maal (material) was Rashid talking about because story goes on the different tangent altogether. But Sarkar fortunately escaped the brunt and did work.

So, what is it about Rann that audience unfortunately caught you this time for because it didn't work?

I shall tell you reason five years hence like I gave you the reasoning for Sarkar.

i really cant believe now...he was the one who directed movies like rangeela and mast😲