I use people - Ram Gopal Varma

I use people as long as they're useful to me

Ram Gopal Varma talks about Shah Rukh Khan and ungrateful proteges

Subhash K Jha

So you are finally making a film with Shah Rukh Khan.
Yes, finally! We've been discussing projects for years. We're shooting in the second half of this year. But I want to make a film that will project Shah Rukh's potential as a star rather than his capabilities as an actor. I want to tap what Shah Rukh is loved for – his stardom. And I want to do it my way.

Will Shiva be like just another RGV film, that will come and go?
I don't think I make films that just come and go. The reason I've kept silent is because I wanted to steer clear of the confusion surrounding Shiva and whether it was a remake of my first Hindi film Shiva, or James. The whole idea of making James was to make an action film-based on the style of the '70s and '80s. It was meant to be a contemporised Shiva. By the time it was released, it was nothing like what it was planned to be. My new Shiva is a remake of my old Shiva, but in a way that James was meant to be. I started my Bollywood career with Shiva in the '70s. It was about one man's fight against campus violence. To me that appeared outdated. In the new Shiva, Mohit Ahlawat plays a cop just out of the police academy who's faced with the harsh reality of life.

Have you retained the same cast as James?
Yes. But they aren't playing the same characters in Shiva. Why would I do something so stupid? I had tremendous faith in the original cast and crew of James. I don't have to change my convictions and beliefs just because the film didn't work. I don't judge actors' potential by hits and misses. Mohit Ahlawat continues to remain a talented actor regardless of whether James worked or not. I will not join the trade analysts in saying he's finished just because James didn't work.

Has Mohit gone beyond James in Shiva?
Mohit never went anywhere with James.

Your decision to make Shiva was sudden. Didn't that throw your other plans out of gear?
Not really, I go from film to film. I was supposed to start Sholay. But Mr. Bachchan's unexpected illness put the brakes on it. In any case Sholay was not supposed to start before July 2006. So I did have the time to squeeze in another film in the interim. Shiva takes me into a genre that I truly admire. I started my career with it, so I've a certain attachment to it.

Your film-making experience with your assistants and associates hasn't been too rewarding lately...
They aren't to blame. As a decision-maker, the final responsibility rests with me. People don't understand the mechanics of film-making. They feel an assistant is responsible for a flop. But for all practical purposes I'm equally responsible for the flops.

You have had to deal with a lot of ingratitude lately.
What do you mean? I don't believe in gratitude. I don't work with anyone out of a sense of charity. I use people as long as they're useful to me.

What about Antara Mali? She said she felt weighed down by her commitment to your company.
I don't think she said that. She said she had decided to move away from the Factory. I don't know what she meant. She was never under a contract to act in or make a specified number of films with me. She was free to go anywhere.

Your protgs, from Manoj Bajpai to Antara Mali, have all moved away.
It's a free country. Everyone is entitled to do what they want. It could be that some of these people had unpleasant experiences with me or they might not have liked my style of functioning. They fulfilled the expectations I had in them. But obviously I couldn't live up to their expectations. No one is bound to stay with the Factory. Besides, I worked with them for my own selfish reasons.

Your next production Darna Zaroori Hai is around the corner?
The film will be released in March. There are seven episodes, each directed by different people. Sajid Khan has directed the prologue and the title sequences at the beginning. The others include Sarrkar writer Manish Gupta, G.G. Philips (My Wife's Murder), Prabal Raman (Ghayab), a new director Vivek Shah and Chakrvarthy. I am directing Mr. Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh

Yet you do keep trusting new talent.
As I've said before, I don't expect my proteges to be grateful to me. I'm not a grateful person myself. Gratefulness a stupid emotion. Let me tell you, I've too much happening in my life and career to bother about these things. I've quite a few assistants working on projects – twenty films by twenty assistants by the end of the next year.