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11/29/2008 My reactions to reactions1. Why is sex more exciting onscreen than between the sheets?
Ans: It’s because onscreen women come edited and in real life you can’t edit them. 2. Most call you Ramu or RGV. How come your friend addressed you as Ramgopal?
Ans: All my college mates used to call me Ramgopal. 3. Why are you against censorship?
Ans: If we are supposed to have enough wisdom to even chose and vote for who should govern us, I think it’s fair that we should also be credited with enough wisdom to decide what we want to see in our films. 4. You have nothing original. You keep quoting Schopenhaver, Ayan Rand etc.
Ans: Arey mere baap. Apart from my umpteen interviews over the years even on this blog I keep screaming that everything I do is a copy. So? 5. You are living in a fool’s paradise.
Ans: That is far better than your intellectual hell. 6. If there is no power, sex and vodka in the world what will you do then?
Ans: Die. 7. Everyone has an opinion on how a film should have been made.
Ans: You are telling me! After Aag I was given 1 lakh 34 thousand seven hundred and twenty nine opinions and after that I stopped counting. 8. I can’t imagine a world full of RGV’s.
Ans: It will be F…......... 9. If you don’t have anything interesting to write, no need to write. It’s really ok. It’s fine.
Ans: If you don’t have anything else to read, no need to come to my blog. It’s really ok. It’s fine. 10. Every breath we take is a gift from God.
Ans: But he takes it out too. What about that sir? 11. What is the need to do both Rann and Agyaat?
Ans: Coz I can think and work faster than you. Least I will do is to make 2 bad films while you will do nothing. 12. Your attitude is simply spoiling your body of work.
Ans: I have a fabulous suggestion for you. Why don’t you think for yourself for a little time in all the time you are wasting on me? 13. You will be insignificant when you die, maybe just remembered by a silly Guinness /Limca book.
Ans: Thanks for that much credit at least. With you I don’t think that anybody will know that you existed. 14. I feel you are spiritual.
Ans: Quite a few people want me to become a spirit. 15. I can’t believe your rudeness. What do you think of yourself?
Ans: Too much. 11/24/2008 My WORLDYou see with the sense of your sight, you hear with the sense of your hearing, you feel with the sense of your touch and all these senses are nothing but the functions of your mind which is nothing but a thought and an idea.
When you close your eyes and go to sleep the world ceases to exist and it comes back to you when you wake up in the morning and it comes back in different shapes and forms to every living being on the planet. It follows that each and every one of us have our own world which cannot be really seen or experienced by anybody else no matter how close they are to us.
This world of each of us is made up of a combination of our own individual experiences, sensibilities and our knowledge and intelligence levels, however small, big and different they might be.
So my world is nothing but a collection of my own feelings and thoughts and ideas and it will be a fallacy for me to think that anybody else can really appreciate them at least in the way I meant them. At best I can hope for a few others to connect to some of my thoughts in their own individual ways. This is what I mean when I often say I make films for myself.
So as long as I am sure that no one really can understand what I stand for, what is the point of even attempting to make them understand? I might as well just give an open invitation to my world through my films to whoever is interested and after that just leave it to them for their own interpretations.
My film is nothing but my world. Many others might contribute to its shape and form but the world is eventually coloured with my vision. As a Director I am not a primary artiste in the sense of the word. Primary arts are about an actor acting, composer doing music, somebody writing dialogues etc etc. But all these primary arts I am amalgamating them into a coherent whole so that it creates an emotional impact or whatever else I might choose to create.
So you will get to see the characters such as I want you to see, hear music such as what I want you to hear etc etc. Because of this understanding of mine I always believed that the success of my film belongs to everybody in the team but the failure belongs only to me. This is because each and every artiste and technician have contributed to the best of their ability as per the requirements of the world I wanted to create in that particular film and only I know which contribution of theirs has enhanced which part of the film.
But if any visitor ventures into my world and does not like it, that is completely my failure alone as per what the visitor expected from it.
Anyway coming back to my worldly gyan, as long as you are sure of what your own world is, understand it and how you want to shape it and live in it, life more or less becomes a fantasy and you can surely have one hell of a ball, like the way I do.
My World consists of Powerful people, Intense music, Sexy women, Vodka, Gangsters, Ghosts and Philosophies which can be twisted to my convenience.
As for the other realities of Life like social responsibilities, family values and various such lofty ideals I just close my eyes and go to sleep.....Zzzzzzzzzzz...
11/20/2008 Mohan KrishnaThe first time someone ever associated the word Director with me was a friend of mine called Mohan Krishna back in my engineering college days. Inspite of me being a major movie buff and constantly talking and analyzing movies I remember being quite taken aback that someone thought I can be a film director. I would go to the extent of saying that Mohan Krishna was the one who planted the seed in my head that I should become a Director.
I was not in touch with him for more than 20 years ever since we left college and recently he happened to mail me from Australia after getting my contact from somewhere. Just wanted to share his mail with you.
Ram Gopal, Read your journey to becoming director and reminds me of the belief I had at college. When I read these, I can feel the same intensity observed back in college. When you mentioned that I was the first who consciously said of you becoming director, I definitely could feel the reality of it. I may not distinctly remember the conversation per se.
But I always thought that I knew more than any body else about future success in your path, probably I remember Kamineni as a skeptic like any body else at the time would have been. Getting back in touch after such a long time, I thought it may be good thing to write some of my impressions of our association at college as you are one person (in philosophical sense) other than the environment that influenced me and I always thought that I had similar influence which may not be true. My belief in your success probably is reflected in these impressions . These impressions are distant but clear for possible reason of being restated a few times over last 25 years in my mind and in some instances for narrating others.
I remember the karate exercises we did as group and you had mobilized and organized with definite confidence. That was the first time I saw any one taking a raw egg, seeing quite a few (dont remember faces) in the group taking raw eggs and soon I evolved myself taking raw egg with ease. And when I was struggling to do normal push-ups, you were able to do the knuckle push-ups. That was kind of a true demonstration of intensity in doing any task at hand. And then coming from a small town and looking at some one kicking and punching the punching bag, I initially remember that (your confident attitude) as confidence from a city boy. After a while, I realized it was something more than that and then continued to have admiration..
I remember the practical experiments that were done at understanding peoples feelings and emotions. The mask that Kaiser or some one brought from overseas was used to note reactions of panic, fright or horror from several people. Another one was the distance of guilt and temptation of reward experiment, wherein we asked people if they press a switch, a dog in South Africa dies and so if the person, for a reward, is ready for it. Continued this by increasing the reward and at the same time closeness of the victim to check when morality sinks into human mind. Another one was that when you had strong judgment on who was the most handsome etc., (I don't remember the name, and it was room mate of Lahoti in the hostel you thought). The only reason I remember this was, when you asked me, I said without even thinking I said that it was me the most handsome, then you came back to pick excluding myself.
As a social thing, I remember having my first beer at Benz centre with yourself and Papi Reddy. Also remember the time when yourself and KS Rao (Kamineni, I am not sure if he is still in touch, if so pl pass his contact) both used to celebrate the Bday on the same day. Some of the films we watched together like The Beautiful People, The Friday 13th and a number of others that you wanted to analyse after the viewing. Then in final years, I remember the intense philosophical discussions we had when we moved to a house, and that was when I had first exposure to philosophy by which time you were well into Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zaruthustra. I had a book from you by the name The Political Thought (from Aristotle to now) and that book got me into philosophy in general. I also remember the long letters you used to write and discuss intensely on films, love, lust and human nature. That was the time, I distinctly remember myself thinking you should one day become a director to vent those ideas.
Another incident that clearly stays in my mind was the catching of snake. I am not sure if you remember. You, Samba (Gutta Samba Siva Rao) and Myself, one day ended up a catching a snake on the road (of course it was Samba who curled the snake on his forearm) and putting it in the show case for a couple of days and looking for its species in Britannica Encyclopedia. Initially we thought it was a water snake (a non poisonous one), but when alerted by a man on the street that it was crate, I still remember the fear and the instant sweat Samba had until he realized the creature's neck was well and truly under his thumb. On research from the book, we found that some crates in India have bands only for half length and the rest long stripes or some thing similar and these are the most poisonous of the crates. In the end, we ended up leaving the snake in wild at nearby sugarcane farm carrying it in hesian bag.
I also remember the number of films that we watched together with KS Rao and others, your hatred towards cricket, by the way you are the one who made me not to use country vulgar language, not sure if you remember this. Enough memories for now and of course all this with a number of other interactions including fights and man manipulations etc. After all these years, It is not surprising that I enjoy reading Spinoza's Ethics, Schopenhauer's World as Idea and World as Will and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. Any way, I did try to get in touch only once some time in 1996 or 97 (that was when I was in New Zealnd) or so by just calling your number and was told you were in Mumbai then, and then on never tried considering the busy nature of your work.
As for me, since leaving college, I moved to Bengal and lived there for 10 years and in 95 moved to Sydney then to NZ and now I call Brisbane home since 2000. For living, I design steel and concrete structures to serve a purpose, try to understand their behavior of these inanimate objects and keep wondering how they do not fall down. Good to read your blog, I can appreciate the process now better. Also, happened to go through "Biggest flop of my life" being such a personal note, reminded me of the time spent together. Drop a sms when you get this.
Regards
Mohan Krishna St.Kenmore – 4069 11/16/2008 The idea of “AGYAAT”
I have always been an incredible fan of the thriller genre where there is an unknown or a known element which is out to kill at random a group of people trapped in a certain situation whether it is Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’ or John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. Not to forget the “Blair Witch Project” in which the genius of the concept has gone to the extent of not showing the antagonist at all. I have titled my film based on this concept as ‘AGYAAT’ meaning the unknown. Thrillers of this kind are a very popular genre abroad, not to forget the success of numerous dubbed one’s here in India as well. But as yet no film in the same genre has been seriously attempted with Indian actors with a story designed for Indian audience. This movie’s intention would be to explore that and also would be about the emotional complexities that extreme fear would unleash and how the triumph of human spirit refuses to give in even against impossible odds. Story Idea: A film unit on a shoot in a far away land and in a certain situation gets trapped deep in a forest and one by one the members start getting killed. They all are terrified not knowing whether it is a man or an animal or a creature or what? Why I selected a film unit to be the protagonists for this story is because a film unit is literally like a walking office in terms of its various hierarchical elements. A star who is obsessed with himself, a leading lady who bears with him because of his stardom, a director who thinks he will be the next Steven Spielberg, a producer who thinks that the director is screwing up his film, an assistant director who has a crush on the heroine, a script girl who has quite a few things for the assistant director, a frustrated action director who has a hidden maniacal streak in him, a highly subservient spot boy with a very perverted agenda, are just a few of the assorted characters in this story. Whatever the entity is as it hunts them down, their suppressed passions come forth and they realize that it is not only their lives they are fighting for but it is also for their loves. As they are killed one after the other the remaining desperate characters struggle to survive the entity which is not visible to them, faster than them, smarter than them and hell bent on destroying them. The film will be very near to a reality show in a certain sense as in putting a set of people in a certain situation and to see what happens to them. It will have a cast of unknown or little known actors based on the complete suitability of the way the characters are written in the script. The entity in the film is really a premise and what really is exciting for me in the story is the human drama of how in a given situation the whole film unit’s hierarchical differences get erased and all of them become as human as anybody else when faced with death. To capture how their attitudes, personalities and inter-relationships change rapidly in the face of the impending danger is what for me is the most exciting and challenging part. I am intending to start the film in December and finish the principal photography by January 1st week. There will be quite a lot of Special EFX work after that which will take as long as is required to get the intended effect. The movie will be ready for release in May/June 2009. 11/15/2008 My Reactions to Reactions
1. Your comment on men in two words? 2. When you admire highly intellectual women like Ayn Rand how can you be obsessed with voluptuous women? 3. Is there anyone you are jealous of? Case in point: My biggest regret about AAG is that by being the butt of it I didn’t get to fuck it. 4. Are atheist’s people who want to be their own Gods? 5. After I told you to keep working with Bachchan you cast him in RANN. Looks like my prayers got answered. 6. Do you go with your editor and cut the scene or do you cut him from your team? 7. What is right and what is wrong? 8. Do you believe in destiny? 9. Instead of using ‘Truth is Terrible’, use ‘Truth can be Terrible’. 10. Would you ever remake the Good, Bad and Ugly? 11. If every one thinks like you in this world do you think it will be better? 12. You think like this because you are successful. 13. Why do your fans like you even when you are so frank and rude to them? 14. What is that you find most sexually attractive in women? 15. Do you reveal your naked soul in every movie of yours? 16. Is wealth the product of man’s capacity to think? 17. Fuck all the media people in ‘RANN’. 18. Can anyone invite death without a moment of rejection? 19. Does the word compassion mean anything to you? 20. Your hits lead to flops and the flops lead to hits. 21. We hear the background score and feel the intensity. How do you feel it while shooting? 22. Is publicity and marketing essential irrespective of director’s belief? 23. What is the logic behind sequels? 24. Do you fear death? 25. How many projects have you shelved? 26. Why are your male extras horrible and female extras sexy? 27. If Satya was an atheist and intelligent how come he gets attracted to something like marriage? 28. Are you a psycho? 29. People say you are a bad paymaster. 30. Your line “I want money to make movies and I don’t make movies for money” is similar to Sarkar Raj line “Plant ke liye paisa chahiye, paise ke liye plant nahin”. 31. How can a clever person like you fare badly in studies? 32. Though most of us admire Howard Roark we end up as Peter Keatings. 33. I don’t think you are eccentric, just emotionally intense and complex. 34. I think you are a true atheist. Will you write something for my book? 35. I find your post of “Point of Money” boring.
del.icio.us Tags: Ram Gopal Varma,My Reaction to Reaction 11/12/2008 The Point of Money
Money for me has always been a means and never an end. The important point of money is to identify what you want to do with it. Do you want to make money to secure it, buy properties and leave it for your off-spring or do you want to use it for what you wanted it for? My grandfather was obsessed with saving money. For hours he used to explain about some recurring deposit scheme or some such thing where if you put Rs.1 Lakh how it will become Rs.5 Lakhs in 7 years and this he used to tell to a person who does not think beyond that day, namely me. Also there was a cousin of mine Raja whose father was very rich but used to lead a life style of not even taking his car out, always used to keep it under a tarpaulin cloth and travel in a bus. One day I asked him what is the point of having money if you don’t use it for having a better quality of life. He answered saying that if his grandfather and father thought the same then he probably would not have had any money. I answered ‘fine if you grandfather works hard saves and saves and gives it to your father and then he saves and saves and gives it to you and then you save and save give it to Raja and then he saves and saves and gives it to his son and what if Raja gives birth to a son like me. All the earlier four generations will become super big fools, Ha Ha!’ Money for me is potential energy and has no meaning unless it is made kinetic. I would think in a very simplistic way on a philosophical level the origin of money could be explained in this way. When men in the primitive times used to hunt they were like all other animals. Hunt, eat, sleep, hunt again would have been the cycle. And some time one among them has an idea of agriculture as in wanting to grow a crop. Now others might not understand or share his vision but he will need them to work for him on the crop. So to compensate them for working for his vision which could go wrong or right was where money has been invented and he pays them with that. So with the money they got, it becomes their energy which they could choose to make it kinetic in whichever way they individually choose to. But again to enjoy money you first need to enjoy the experience of living a life and also to be able to identify what all life’s shop can offer you. For instance you can buy the greatest music system that a shop can offer but you can’t buy from life’s shop a mind which can actually relish the music which plays from it. That mind, you have to have yourself. If not, having money will just amount to securing yourself fearing poverty or to feel a sense of elation in comparison to others who have lesser money than you. Thus it becomes nothing but a measurement for your own self esteem. If you have a beautiful rich house others will admire especially those who live in the same street, but you yourself will take it for granted in not more than one day after the interior décor is done and from then on you will be only looking at its faults. Also if you have issues with your wife, the same house will look like a horror house from your point of view as you are approaching it after your days work. Any way before you guys take off on me on this, the point I am trying to make is that no materialistic things like a music system, a car, a house etc can really give you pleasure unless it enhances the pleasure of your own personal feelings with regard to them in one way or the other. If you are with a person who bores you it won’t make a difference if you are sitting in the JW Marriott Coffee Shop and if you are interested in the person a roadside tea shop also will do wonders. The point of life is to relish your feelings and money can make a point if and only it helps you achieve that. I don’t care for people who want to make money just to save it as I don’t understand the point of trying to prepare for losses and death right from the time of being born. Then what’s the point of being born? In terms of my movie making money yes it is important for me that it should and I will try to the limits of my capability to see that it does. But I don’t want to make that money to add to my bank balance. I want it for making my next movie. I want money so that I can make movies but I don’t make movies so that I can make money. I have never made money and I think I never will. The reason for that being my mindset of constantly putting to use whatever money I have going by my theory of making it kinetic. So even if I make a film which does not work, which obviously can not be my intention, the least it is doing is give that many people work thereby making them kinetic, and yes at least it is making them earn their livelihood and I irrespective of losing money will still generate more money because of my ideas. Ideas and feelings are the only true wealth anyone can really possess and on that account I have always been rich and I will always be, that is at least for myself. Whether that achieves anything in others perception or not it’s not my concern as like I said a million times before “I live for myself”.
11/4/2008 My reactions to reactions1. After the duds I have seen of yours I wouldn’t mind giving your movies a miss. Ans: Oh Noooooo! I beg you with tears in my eyes not to do that. Please forgive me for the films you did not like. I swear on you and your family that I will try not to disappoint you next time. Please please please don’t deprive me of my livelihood.
2. Why don’t you take Nagarujuna for one character in Rann? Ans: Why don’t you keep your casting genius for yourself when you make your own film?
3. Technical stuff is fine but the correct criteria for a film is the story. Ans: Oh My! What wisdom.
4. I think there are a few influences of Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead in the characters of Rann. Ans: Some of them you are bang on. Anyway I am truly impressed with your observations.
5. What are your favourite books apart from Ayn Rand and Nietzsche? Ans: Apart from Ayn Rand, Nietzsche and James Hadley Chase my most favourite books are Mario Puzo’s Godfather, quite a few of Fredrick Forsyth’s, the bitchy parts of Jackie Collins books and the sexiest excerpts from Harrold Robbins novels. But what influenced me the most is the Mad magazine.
6. Whatever must happen ultimately should happen immediately. – Henry Kissinger. Ans: Whatever people think should happen immediately make them think that it will happen ultimately. – RAMGOPAL VARMA.
P.S: It’s on this con I managed to run my career so far. (Mujhe pata hai ki mujhe foren hit film banana hai, lekin main kabhi na kabhie zaroor bana doonga).
7. Is there any significance for the red colour in the poster of Rann? I liked that the best. Ans: Nothing except that it looked the best from the designers 3 options of red, green and black.
8. Something cannot emerge from nothing. Ans: On the contrary if anything emerges with enough impact, people will imagine that there is something to it. That is the birth of all conspiracy theories.
9. Why does the Tantrik in Phoonk say “ghatia sawal mat poonch” instead of explaining? Ans: Because I didn’t know the explanation.
10. Would you have been as nasty to someone who gives you Diwali greetings if he happened to be Big B? Ans: As he knows me too well Big B won’t be dumb enough to give me such inane greetings.
11. Your comment on women in two words? Ans: Two words are too many.
12. Will you show women nude if censor permits? Ans: Ahhhhhhh!
13. You seem to be doing what you enjoy! Ans: Yyyessssssss!
14. Do you pay Income Tax? Ans: I will tell you only if you swear on your mother that you are not from the Tax department.
15. What was the first reaction of Amitji to you, 2nd and then nth reaction? Ans: I think the first reaction was of intrigue, the 2nd time he suspected that I am a crackpot and now he is convinced that I am raving lunatic.
16. Can a pair of nice legs, heaving bosoms, slim waist and voluptuous butt make up for a bad scene? Ans: I don’t know about a scene, but if your sexuality is in the right place it sure can greatly spice up your life.
17. I swear on your and my mother I will never wish you happy birthday. Ans: Ha Ha.
18. You need to cater to an audience at the end of the day and the investors have to profit. Ans: Let the audience worry about what they want to see. Let me worry about what I want to make. Let the investors worry about their profit. And you worry about yourself.
19. Why do you think we get entertained when two parties fight? Ans: It sure breaks the monotony of life.
20. What do you like in a James Bond movie? Ans: Guns and butts.
21. Are you gay? Ans: Do you read gossip?
22. Do you know you have given people like me the courage to face a life-time. Ans: I am truly happy to know that but just remember it’s not about facing life but it’s about flowing with it. Life, time and destiny do not stop for anybody. It’s up to you to understand it and use its strength as an addition to your own individual strength.
23. Your poster designs and promos are always good. It’s the movie which sucks. Ans: Aw! Come on! 2 out of 3 ain’t that bad.
24. What do you think of Swami Vivekananda? Ans: Who is he?
25. What is your philosophy of life and your idea of a perfect life? Ans: Not to think too much and to do what you think.
26. You are basically a brilliant educated goonda. Ans: Superb. I am thrilled with your insight and for a change I truly mean it.
27. You are a rebel without a cause. Ans: I have a very clear-cut cause namely my own gratification or in more simpler words to just have one hell of a ball of a life.
11/1/2008 My Reactions to Reactions1. At best you are an imitator.
Ans: Ahhh! For figuring this out you are definitely a creator. 2. Do you think 2 people living in two different parts of the country will react differently to the same movie/scene?
Ans: I think many times the same person will react differently if he happens to see the same movie/scene twice. 3. In Sarkar when Chander instructs his people to beat up the guy, it feels like a carpenter is instructing his workers.
Ans: That is precisely the brief I gave to the actor who played Chander. 4. The audience does not care about shot divisions, camera angles and other technical stuff. It’s only the narration they connect to.
Ans: You are absolutely right in a certain sense. But then it can’t be as simple as the writer sitting in the theatre and narrating the story to the people. Technique in cinema when done right should be inseparable from narration. 5. Do you copy Hitchcock?
Ans: Among many others. 6. Is it ok to say sorry when we do something wrong.
Ans: Yes. But it’s even better to stubbornly insist that we were right so that the person you said sorry to won’t sit on your head. 7. Every time negative tactics don’t work.
Ans: Okay Mr.Socrates. 8. Is it my problem if I have higher expectations from you?
Ans: It will be a problem for you if you have expectations from anyone including your family, your government and also God. The secret of a happy life is not to have expectations from anybody except yourself. 9. How many times do you pause a movie and think of how that scene/dialogue will be useful for you?
Ans: All the time. 10. Did you hear of Philanthropy?
Ans: Ya I did. It is some disease of the head. 11. What do you think of after-life?
Ans: I don’t have the time to think of tomorrow. I take life one minute at a time. 12. What do you call a guy who wants to marry again after once divorcing? Ans: Double dumb. 13. Why did you choose Nietzsche to be influenced?
Ans: Because his quotes are vague enough so that I can use them to twist my philosophy around at my will and convenience. 14. Nice songs, few comedy scenes, few emotional scenes, make a film perfect for all types of audiences.
Ans: I make for my type. 15. Very interesting cast. The hard work should start now. I have the following suggestions.
Ans: I read all your inputs and suggestions and I had a great idea. I think you only should come and direct.
16. Hope the plot of Rann is as great as the cast.
Ans: And I hope that you are not as worse as your hope. 17. Someone should make something like Mackenna’s Gold.
Ans: That’s my dream. 18. Your Rann’s topic won’t be appealing to most Indians.
Ans: Oh Mr.Representative of India I didn’t think of that. Thank you very much for this slice of wisdom. 19. I hope you will recover your money on Rann.
Ans: Better you worry about your own money, if you have any in the first place. 20. Try to keep away from crazy camera angles extreme close-ups etc. If you tell me who will give BGM and D.O.P for your movie I will tell you whether it will work or not.
Ans: If you tell me who is the worst BGM guy and D.O.P I will go ahead and sign only them. 21. I wish you a very very happy and prosperous Diwali. Ans: Am just curious about if you really think that any of the forces out there who can give me happiness and prosperity will give a fuck about your wishes. |
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