What's Ram Gopal Varma's aag?

The enfant terrible of Bollywood moves with bodyguards who seem to have popped straight out of Satya, and likes to place a pillow on his lap when he chats. In an interview with Sunday MiDDAY, Ram Gopal Varma discusses why he chose to make a film on the Maria Susairaj case
It is the third day of Ramzan, and the 2 pm shoppers in the bylanes of Mohammed Ali Road are spilling onto the main street. In one such alley, squeezed between a rundown hotel whose kitchen has been shifted outside, and a makeshift stall of blue tarpaulin sheets, selling a variety of sweets, is Bismillah Hotel.



Today, however, there is plenty of activity in this otherwise sleepy lodge. Among a horde of burly men carrying walkie-talkies, both, at the hotel's reception and outside, is an over six foot-tall man who speaks in fluent English. As we speak with him, a group of large men surround us. One of the men, who is wearing aviators on a rainy day and sports what looks like the tattoo of a bull on his left arm, asks us what business we have.

After much requesting, they allow us inside. The hotel is dingy, and the corridors, narrow. We are taken to a small, air-conditioned room. Fifteen minutes later, the door opens and in walks our interviewee -- the current enfant terrible of Bollywood, Ram Gopal Varma.

Unlike the image that is often purported of him, he appears sweet natured. Dressed in a youngish untucked yellow and white striped shirt, a pair of tight jeans and black sneakers, he smiles and waits to shake hands. 

The room that we meet in is, in all likelihood, where he rests between shoots. It has two single beds, a solitary table and a small TV set. The paint is peeling off in corners and a doorway to an attic has been sealed off by tape. The entire hotel, in fact has been taken up by Varma's troupe. His much controversial Not A Love Story may be days away from release, but he has already sunk his teeth into another film -- Department. This one is a cop story starring Sanjay Dutt, Rana Daggubati, Naseeruddin Shah and Raveena Tandon.

How is he managing to shoot during Ramzan in a crowded Bhendi Baazar? "My Satya contacts were of help. I got to know some interesting people then, and they have been able to help me out with the shoot," he says, sitting on the bed, and despite the grim subject being discussed, like a schoolgirl, placing a pillow on his lap.

He adjusts the pillow and once satisfied, gets ready to talk about an even more macabre subject, the Maria Susairaj case. "Like everyone, I was shocked when I read about the case in the papers. How could two ordinary people, very much like you and me, kill a man, have sex in front of a dead body, cut him into pieces and dispose it off in shopping bags?" he says. "In this film, I have tried to examine the psychological aspects of such a crime -- what kind of emotions could cause something like this to happen?"

Varma adds that the film is inspired by the case and not entirely based on it. "How could it have been completely true? The only people who know the true sequence of events are the people involved, and to some extent, the judge who gave his verdict on it," he adds.

That's when we get to the how-could-you and why-did-you. Varma, for that matter, held the film's promotional launch on the same day the court pronounced its verdict on the case and even went as far as saying he wanted to cast Susairaj for a film. Varma clarifies that the promo launch and the court verdict coinciding were, well, a coincidence. "And I never said I want to cast Susairaj. All I said was that her case and history would have no bearing if I were to cast her," he says. "The trouble is, there has been such brouhaha over this case, no one actually knows what happened."

But what about the talk that Varma has -- with all his news channel appearances after the case verdict, visiting the Taj after 26/11 with the official entourage, and other such instances -- to put it crudely, become a publicity-seeking hound? "About 26/11, I was only curious to see what happened. Anyone would have paid an arm or a leg to be there. But yes, as a filmmaker I know the importance of publicity and I will seek publicity for my films."

Varma may not admit it, but 2011 is proving to be an exceptionally busy year. Simply as a director, he has been involved with Katha Screenplay Darshakatvam Appalaraju (Telugu), Dongala Mutta (Telugu), Not a Love Story, and now Department, before he starts work on Amma 3D (Telugu) by year-end. "I don't look at it that way. I believe I have been working on films since 1989." The most experimental among them being Dongala Mutta.

"The film was shot in five days, with a seven-member crew. Just me, the director, an assistant director and five film school students using Canon 5D cameras," he says.

But any talk of his brand of 'experimental' cinema, and he quickly cages up. "I don't think my work is experimental. Those who keep making films about couples falling in love and singing songs are experimental in believing they are making good cinema," he says.

In the course of the interview, Varma gets a number of calls, mostly from someone preparing Not A Love Story's advertisement. He gets an image of the latest ad on his Blackberry, that of the two actors playing Susairaj and her fianc © Emile Jerome, walking out of a house carrying shopping bags. Varma shows it to us, and debates if the bags should be visible in front of the characters or behind them, since he says, "Not everyone might know of the case in such detail." Let the bags be visible, he finally decides.

In fact, not only does Varma show us the latest ad, he also asks if we'd like some coffee, indulges in small talk, and also asks which publications we have worked for.

He appears to be a genuinely sweet chap.

All of a sudden, at the end of our chat, he asks, "So, what do you think of Aarakshan?" and waits for the answer. A little stumped, we say we haven't heard of it. He then asks loudly in disbelief, "You haven't heard of Aarakshan?"

"Oh yes, the Prakash Jha one," we say and add, "It looks a little preachy. What do you think?"

"Yes, I agree. These issue-based films don't interest me," he says with disregard.

Aarakshan releases on August 12. Varma's Not A Love Story hits theatres August 19. Either Varma is a nice, misunderstood chap, or he just handed us one more 'publicity' story.