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9/29/2008 My Reaction to Reactions1. Why are you fond of camera shots that move close to the ground? Ans: I think it’s the infantile nature in me. I like crawling. 2. What do you think of the Telugu Industry? Ans: I don’t think of anything except myself. 3. How did you conceive the scene at the railway crossing in Shiva where Nagarjuna rescues Amala? Ans: Obviously from my imagination. An interesting thing happened at location when I was shooting that scene. My assistant director walked up to me and said it’s very illogical that there are no other vehicles near the crossing. The kidnapping has happened in the city and there is no reason that the goons will be taking her out of the city. Also since Nagarjuna is on the other side of the gate, he could not have been coming from out of city. So for all practical purposes the incident was happening in the city. Conveniently during the entire built up of Nagarjuna watching them and slowly walking around and delivering his lines, there are neither the railway guards nor any people or vehicles in the vicinity. I told him that the audience will be hooked on to what is happening with Nagarjuna and Amala and with the music and his expressions and the situation their mind won’t go to those things. He was not convinced and was quite shocked that nobody brought it up after the release. This is a classic case of illustrating the strength of Alfred Hitchcock’s line “where drama begins logic ends”. He is supposed to have come up with this line while he was filming “North by Northwest”, where there is a scene when the hero is being chased by the baddies. As he is running to escape he gets onto a train. Just when the audience thinks he has escaped there are baddies on the train too. Here his assistant asked him that how will the baddies know that he will get onto the train to which Hitchcock replied that the audience will be driven by the emotion whether he will escape and hence will not think. That’s the difference between a book and a movie. In a book you can stop reading and think whereas in a movie its pace that controls your thinking. Also an example of this is in Satya when Khandilker closes the doors of the movie theatre and walks into the theatre and announces to the crowd that there is a dangerous gangster among them which is logically very stupid. Realistically, in a situation like that they would come in plain clothes and ask the informants to point him out as the audiences are coming out so that they can nab him unaware. Why would they forewarn a dangerous gangster who is in the crowd so that he can take anybody hostage there. Here my thrust was to manipulate the audience into thinking in the direction of how Satya will escape without Urmila coming to know his identity and hence in the drama they will miss the larger picture of logic. When Sandeep Chowta started doing background, he and his musicians felt that the scene was ridiculous because of the same reasons. I thought maybe I stretched the drama versus logic too far this time but it was too late to do anything about it. I couldn’t come up with a solution so I had no choice but to release the film as it is. After the release and 10 years since, I have not met a single guy who had a problem with that. Now why Sandeep and his team felt and nobody else did after that is anybody’s guess. I would think that Sandeep’s team was watching the film in parts as he was doing the music and hence they were emotionally not involved. Yet another example is the climax of Rangeela. If the premiere ended at presumably 12:30 in the night, Jackie and Urmila come to Pakya. Jackie just asks him where is Munna and I cut to shot of Munna lying on top of a truck. Now whose tempo is that, I never established a vehicle for Munna in the film, so either it is being driven by a friend of his who is going somewhere or he is just taking a random ride. If it is a random vehicle how will Pakya know how he is going? Were Jackie and Urmila driving for 6 hours in the night since 12:30 and looking for what? Conveniently for them to spot him, I made Munna lie on the top. If he was inside and Jackie stopped it, it would have raised unnecessary questions in the audience’s mind or whose vehicle is it, on the other hand if the driver is a known guy to Munna, who is he? To escape that logic I just simply applied the oldest trick in the trade “out of sight is out of mind”. After Aamir gets out and the long drama starts between the three, I composed all the frames in such a way that both the truck and the driver were out of the frame not letting the audience mind wonder from the point of the scene. If you look at it, the climax scene could have happened in the night too if Pakya said Munna just left and maybe he can catch him walking around the conner of the road but I strongly felt that the climax scene for a film like Rangeela should not happen in the night. It should be a picturesque location to give a feel good finishing. Max logic I applied was to treat the scene as early morning light so as not to give a visual jump. Anyways to cut a long story short very frequently whenever I get into such above predicaments I just say “Jai Alfred Hitchcock” and go ahead. 4. Do you ever advise people? Ans: Yes, I advise them not to ask advice. 5. It seems like you are a very dry person? Ans: Yeah but I sure like wet things. 6. Ambitious, arrogant, honest, creative, impersonal, detached and eccentric/ neurotic = RGV? Ans: You can also add liar, con, complex, funny, impulsive, impatient, contradictory and distrustful. 7. The only unselfish relationship is that of a child taking care of his aged parents. Ans: From that to Gandhiji giving his life to the country to Mother Teresa working for the lepers are acts of emotional indulgence which are choices made by those particular individuals and do not concern selfish individuals like me. 8. The last film I saw of yours was Darna Zarori hai. Which of your subsequent films would you recommend to me? Ans: None 9. With whom will you share your happiness? Ans: If it does not strain your brains too much try to ask a little more intelligent question. 10. You name a movie after a girl, whom you met long back, just to remind her that you still remember and you still claim that you don’t give in for relations. Ans: Hmmm... You got me there. 11. How to overcome fear? Ans: By making a horror film because then you can study fear instead of feeling it. 12. How do you decide on camera angels? Do you do any homework on it? Ans: I don’t do homework. I decide angles and frames on the set directly going by how I wish to see what is happening. 13. What happened to Factory “Sir”? I miss its products a lot. Ans: Since many were missing its products I wanted to miss the factory till I get the products right. 14. I am waiting for your blog on “Nishabd”. Ans: Soon. 15. If the film has stuff why publicize and promote? Ans: Because us folks in the film industry are not as brainy as you and also there is that little thing of creating awareness and drawing attention to our product. 16. By the way did all the guys who you conned finally come to know? Ans: Yes, much after the release. Like the saying goes “All’s well that ends well”. 17. You easily would have been the most dangerous and wicked person in the world. Ans: Jaideep Sahani the writer used to say in the making of Company that it is the police’s good luck that I was not in the underworld. 18. Was there a contingency plan if Shiva didn’t work? Ans: My whole life works only on contingency plans. 19. What’s the difference between Ramu and Ramuji? Ans: I am basically Ram and a few people who misread me and attribute a certain loftiness to me call me Ramuji. 20. Don’t use this platform to embarrass little fellows like Tarani. Ans: Point taken. Sorry to you and sorry to Tarani too. 9/24/2008 The plant of ShivaMost of my understanding of politics of violence and criminal psychology which I extensively applied in ‘Shiva’, ‘Satya’, ‘Company’, ‘Sarkar’ etc primarily came from my experience in Siddharth Engg.College and not from my underworld contacts as popularly perceived.
The opening scene of ‘Shiva’ where they come in a car and bash up some students in front of the college actually happened in front of my college. That atmosphere of ‘Shiva’ primarily came from my engg college and the protagonist I based it on a person called Golla Ravi who used to live in Punjagutta area in Hyderabad. He used to have a combination of a super tough and a super nice guy image.
The plotline of ‘Shiva’ was a direct rip-off from Bruce Lee’s ‘Return of the Dragon’ in which Lee comes from Hong Kong to work in a Chinese restaurant in Rome where the local goons are trying to intimidate the owners. As he tries to take care of them and fight the goons, they get tougher and tougher and in the end he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Chuck Norris in the coliseum. Likewise Nagarjuna comes from another town to attend a college where the local goons are intimidating the students. As he tries to take care of them and fight the goons they become tougher and tougher and in the end he has a one-to-one fight with the toughest Raghuvaran on top of a terrace. Ha! Ha! So much for originality!
Taking such a simplistic plot line I wanted to create characters and scenes and present them in a way as never been seen before, though there were quite a few scenes I copied from various films. A few examples are; the Ganapati chanda collection scene has been taken from Dilip Shanker’s ‘Kaalchakra’, Amala giving coffee to Nagarjuna before the song is from Sanjeev Kumar’s some film, the cycle chase is from Rahul Rawail’s ‘Arjun’ and the scene where Nagarjuna’s dead friend’s mother slaps the inspector is from Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’, to name a few.
The shooting went quite well and uneventful mainly because of my extreme clarity in what I wanted to achieve. Only after the final edit trouble started. When we arranged a projection two outside people who were not involved in the making saw the film, said it’s too slow and boring with no drama. The excitement in all concerned came down quite a bit in spite of me saying that it is the lack of background score and sound efx which is making them feel that. Without them it looked like a silent film. In those days they were not used to such underplayed performances and subtleties and hence understandably disturbed. Nagarjuna was the only guy who understood and stood by me like a rock in that entire period.
When the films first trial happened many distributors felt it was too violent and feared that women and family audience will stay away as the industry generally believed that they constitute the majority.
Surendra and Venket felt that at best the film will do a very average business and I told them that it will be big hit.
The film released and the first day report Venket got from a distributor was that the audience was watching the movie silently without any reaction. We couldn’t make out what the means, till the same guy called again in the night and told us that he finally figured out the reason for that and told us the audiences are simply stunned.
It created a furore at the box-office and for the sheer impact I became a household name in Andhra Pradesh.
I was very glad that my confidence proved the distributors, Venket and Surendra wrong.
P.S: I was even more confident of ‘Raatri’ (Raat) and it became a disaster.
 Some trivia of ‘Shiva’: 1). Originally ‘Shiva’ was the name of the villain in the script. In the narration Nagarjuna used to like the name so much he asked me to name his character as Shiva.
2). I named the villain Bhavani because I based his character on a guy called Radha with a very violent reputation in Vijayawada. Since Radha is a girl’s name, I named him Bhavani which is a girl’s name too.
3). Initially I had a scene of Shiva’s first fight with J.D when he is playing football which I wanted to loosely model on a similar scene of ice-hockey in ‘Damien (Omen II)’. When Venket didn’t react to it much, I came up with breaking the cycle chain idea. Throughout the shooting I wasn’t too sure how that would be received because after Venket liked it very much I went home and tried to break the cycle chain and realized the impossibility of it, But I told myself that since nobody would have tried it, it just might look believable. But now after all these years the sheer number of people who come and claim to me that they broke a cycle chain after watching ‘Shiva’ is the ultimate example of how imagination can take over and become a reality in time.
4). I read about the steadicam in the ‘American Cinematographer’ magazine and I was talking about it to a camera assistant in the studio that something like that exists in Hollywood, when he shockingly revealed to me that there is one even in Chennai for the past 4 years but nobody uses it. I tested it out and wanted to use it but my cameraman was reluctant saying that one can't center it or balance it, to which I said if we are using it in a chase scene as a point of view why should that matter. Thus I became the first Director ever to use a steadicam. Within a year of ‘Shiva’s release more than 10 steadicams were imported.
5). Most fight sequences were choreographed by me in ‘Shiva’ and that is why you see Nagarjuna hitting mostly with a hook or a stomach punch. That’s because I knew only those two from my boxing days.
6). The first ever compliment I ever got in my life as a Director from an outsider was when Ilayaraja was doing the background score for ‘Shiva’ in Mumbai due to some strike in Chennai, a violin player walked up to me and said, “The film is fantastic”. His name was Ismail Durbar and he went on to later do music for ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ and ‘Devdas’.
9/20/2008 Cons, lies and one truth.(This has to be read in continuation to my previous post titled “Wrong is right”.) As I was hanging out on the sets of ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’ Surendra had an idea of making a film based upon ‘The Sound of Music’ which was later made into ‘Rao Gari Illu’. In ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’ since I came towards the end after most of the script was done and decisions of casting and selection of technicians were already made, I thought it will be a unique opportunity to be involved in a film right from the inception of the idea. By that time my status was that I became close to Venket and Surendra and Nagarjuna but nowhere were they remotely in a state of mind to offer me a film to direct, their basic contention being I don’t have practical experience.
But on the force of my personality I slowly started influencing Surendra who wanted an established Director for ‘Rao Gari Illu’ to take a new Director with lots of experience. I suggested Tarani the 2nd assistant in ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’ who had around 14 years of experience and who I knew well. My agenda was that if he is directing I can be an intrinsic part in all the decisions right from the beginning or more simply put, that I can be a backseat Director. So I manipulated Surendra to decide on Tarani which he finally did. I was ecstatic because of this development as it gave me a chance to study right from the ringside how an idea grows and shapes up into a film. Little did I know how horribly wrong this would go. Tarani initially was very grateful to me as he knew that I was the main reason for Surendra to take him as a Director, but slowly with time he grew tremendously irritable with my constant perceived interference which I thought were my creative inputs and also became very jealous of my proximity with the actors and the Producer. A.N.R, Nagarjuna’s father, was the star of the film who kept a distance from everybody including Director Tarani. All the other actors like Jayasudha, Revathy etc used to constantly want to interact with me more than Tarani which understandably upset Tarani a lot. A point came where Tarani gave an ultimatum to Surendra that he won’t shoot if I am on the set. Seeing Surendra’s dilemma I offered to stay out. But the problem was that since it was me who narrated the story to all the actors and Tarani was not shooting it the way they thought it should be and also that he was not able to tell them the reasons for the changes created a lot of discomfort on the set.
Meanwhile ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’ released and became a big hit and Nagarjuna was in form. By that time he already came into a frame of mind to take a chance with me as a Director. But A.N.R was completely against it and told Nagarjuna ‘just because Ramu can speaks in English and quote from English novels and films does not mean that he can direct’. Nagarjuna expressed his helplessness.
As this was going on, one day Tarani was shooting a key scene and A.N.R had a doubt on the structuring of the scene which Tarani could not answer. To escape Tarani told him that the scene was conceived by me and approved by Surendra and that he was just forced to shoot it. A.N.R called for me and Surendra.
He took off on me at the stupidity of the scene when I stopped him and explained to him the whole point of the scene and how it should be shot and in that discussion A.N.R realized how wrongly Tarani was shooting and worse than that he didn’t even understand the point of the scene. He asked me to be present for the shooting of the scene and by the end of it he told Nagarjuna at home that he was mighty impressed with me.
With that practically all decks were cleared as A.N.R gave a green signal at least to seriously consider to give me a break. Nagarjuna was positive anyway and Venket and Surendra were reasonably positive but still dilly dallying a little now and then. Now the question was when? Venket said they were shooting a film called ‘Vijay’ with B.Gopal and Surendra was planning another film with Kodandi Rami Reddy starring the father and son again and after that there was another project with K.Raghvendra Rao. So Venket said they can think about my film only after those films got over. My heart sank as I was in no mood to wait that long.
By that time I understand enough of how the industry operates. Surendra asked me to make a story for Kodandi Rami Reddy’s film which I did. He signed Ganesh Patro as a dialogue writer. Kodandi Rami Reddy during those days used to do 7 to 8 films a year and most of the time would not even remember the story of the film he is currently shooting. I took in this information. I narrated the story to Mr.Reddy and Mr.Patro who were fine with it. Then Surendra wanted Mr.Patro to go to Hyderabad, as at that time we were all in Chennai, to narrate to A.N.R as he was shooting in Hyderabad. Later that night I talked to Mr.Patro and offered to go to tell the story to A.N.R myself. Mr.Patro to save the trouble of going called up Surendra and told him to send me to tell the story as I anyway have written it.
So Surendra sent me to Hyderabad to tell the story to A.N.R. I went there and by a deliberate design I narrated the story in such a way that A.N.R. had lots of problems with the script. He called up Surendra and Mr.Patro and Mr.Reddy and told them the story does not work at all. They were taken by surprise and waited for me to come back to tell what the problem was.
I went back and told them a completely different version of problems for what A.N.R had, which were designed to confuse Mr.Patro and Mr.Reddy. The advantage I took is that I clearly knew that Mr.Reddy does not have a script sense and he also has a weak memory and Mr.Patro at any given point of time is busy with 10 films and he is primarily a dialogue writer. So the sum effect of all these proceedings of them not knowing what I told them and the complicated design I worked on confusing them resulted in suddenly there was no script for the film and the dates of Nagarjuna were just around the corner.
Leaving all three in the room in a state of confusion, I went to Nagarjuna who used to live in the upstairs of the office then and told him that there is no script for the Kodandi Rami Reddy film and there’s no way a script can come up in the given time and I said since my script is ready as long as he decided to take a chance on me someday or the other why not take it now. He asked me about what Surendra might say. I went to Surendra and told him that since he will loose a project with Nagarjuna and not get his dates for quite some time, I will try and convince Nagarjuna to do my film in the same dates, to which he agreed. Then I met Nagarjuna and told him Surendra is keen to do the film with me only and I called Surendra in and told him Nagarjuna is fine with it. I don’t know how clear I am being here but the basic point is that I made both Nagarjuna and Surendra feel that it the other’s decision. But both of them said they have to talk to Venket. He wasn’t home as he went for a party. I waited till midnight until Venket came and told him that both Nagarjuna and Surendra decided to do the film with me. He was non-committal. In the morning before Venket woke up I told Nagarjuna and Surendra that Venket was very happy about the decision. And after Venket woke up I took care that no two of them will meet with each other without me being present. They three also had some subtle personal issues with each other which I took advantage of by making each feel that if one opposes the other two will support me.
Then I leaked out the news to the staff at the office. So when Surendra was asked by a staff member if Mr.Reddy’s project has been shelved, I told Surendra it could have been leaked out because of Nagarjuna or Venket and told him that he should hurry up and break the news to Mr.Reddy himself before Mr.Reddy gets to know from outside which is bound to create a bad taste. So Surendra met Mr.Reddy and told him.
The news spread like a wild fire as a major production company like Annapurna Studious dropping the reigning top Director Kodandi Rami Reddy and signing on a rank newcomer Ram Gopal Varma has never ever happened before. With a formal telling by all three to A.N.R, they gave a go-ahead and “Shiva’s” pre-production work started in full swing.
I conned and lied to everybody concerned but the one and only one truth was that I genuinely believed in my heart that ‘Shiva’ would be a far superior film to whatever Mr.Reddy might make and also that it will do lot more good to all concerned and mainly to me of course.
P.S: Tarani after the success of ‘Rao Gari Illu’ made a few flops, is now back to working as an assistant director presently to Poori Jajan.
9/19/2008 Wrong is rightIn ‘Sarkar’ Selvar Mani says “Jiske paas power hai uska wrong bhi right ho jata hai”. I believe it’s not so much because of power alone but it can also be due to your own personal attitude towards life. Somewhere in this blog I mentioned that whenever life decides something for me, I immediately take a decision on top of that so that I always managed to make it work for me one way or the other.
Once I decided to start my video library “Movie House” at Ameerpet, with the Rs.20,000/- capital I got, I went about trying to buy quality types of video films and in the process I trusted a friend’s father who deals in it and he sold me faulty tapes worth Rs.10,000/- which either don’t play or get stuck in the video players, thereby reducing my capital to half even before I started. So by the time I started my shop I barely had a 100 workable tapes. Also every one concerned told me that it was a very bad idea to start a shop in the Ameerpet area as it’s predominantly a lower middle/middle class population who lives there who cannot afford a VCR. And also that it can’t compete with a library called “Fantasy” which used to be on the Punjagutta Road as the rich Banjara Hills crowd only patronize that library. Once it started my library became so successful within a month and Fantasy went out of business in a few months. Now the same theorists said that these days everybody owns a VCR. Also “Movie House” has a better parking space than ‘Fantasy’ etc.
So the point is we can have a theory for anything after the fact. If it didn’t work they would have said “we told you so” and if it works they give a new theory and also they will conveniently forget what they said earlier. Likewise even for my film decisions from the beginning till today I keep getting these expert opinions and advises of what I should do and not. They told me ‘Daud’ will be a blockbuster because it’s Sanjay Dutt after ‘Khalnayak’, Urmila and Rehman after ‘Rangeela’ and they advised me to shelve ‘Satya’ on the basis of who wants to see sweaty looking faces in dirty locations.
The same people advised me not to do ‘Aag’ and my other failures too and today they will all remember what they said about ‘Aag’ etc and conveniently forget about what they said about ‘Daud’ and ‘Satya’. It’s not that my beliefs went right either. Apart from my trust in my friend’s father I trusted on about 20 people I knew who had VCRs who I was sure will give me business. The business went to 100 cassettes per day but the 20 never came and if some did come they didn’t pay money on account of their closeness with me.
So eventually what worked is neither their belief nor mine. Random things keep happening completely out of your control but still your control can be in what you can do in an out of control situation. My real success I believe is in my ability to make decisions and implement them super fast.
Anyway coming back to the video library, I used to narrate the story of each and every film to my customers depending on what taste they have. In due course of time they became so addicted to the way I present a story, quite a few of them used to say that my narration was better than the film.
So I sat behind the counter of the shop for about 8 months doing a fantastic business financially, and with just one high point of being arrested and put in the Punjagutta Police station lock-up for pirating Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Aakhri Raasta’. That was my first stint with how the Police were up close and i made friends with them and studied their psychology and later put that understanding to use in my cop films. Incidentally if anyone who lives in the Ameerpet area is interested about my “Movie House” shop in Ameerpet center which I gave up when ‘Shiva’ started, now runs as ‘Rajdoot Sweet Home’.
Coming back to the ‘wrong is right’ story one day I overheard my father telling someone that Venket the brother of Nagarjuna is looking a for a story for a film as they have K.Raghvendra Rao (of ‘Himmatwala’ fame) signed. Surendra his brother-in-law was a customer at my shop and through him I managed to get an appointment with Venket. I told him the story of Raatri (Raat) which he said won’t work in the Telugu market and asked me if I can write a story for a hero to be told to Raghvendra Rao. So I went back and in about an hour I wrote a one-line order of ‘Shiva’ borrowing from my own experiences in college and also liberally from Govind Nihalani’s ‘Ardh Satya’, Rahul Rawail’s ‘Arjun’ and Dilip Shanker’s “Kaalchakra’.
Venkat liked the story very much and he took me to narrate it to Raghvendra Rao. Mr.Rao said it sounds like an experimental film with no drama in it. I thought maybe he knows what he is talking about since he is so highly successful and asked him if I can rework on it. As I was trying to rework it, I happened to see his film ‘Kaliyuga Pandavruh’ and I suddenly realized how he must be seeing ‘Shiva’. I immediately gave up the idea of being a story writer and went and told Venket the same. I also told him that I would like to assist some director if they all feel it is so important to do that to be able to direct. Surendra with whom I have become a little close by then was starting a film with director B.Gopal called ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’ starring Nagarjuna and his dad A.N.R. So I formally joined as a 5th Assistant to B.Gopal who was very very busy in another film which he was finishing. So I started attending script sessions with 2 writers Komannapalli Ganapati Rao and Suryadevara Rammohan Rao on the script of ‘Collector Gari Abbayi’.
In the course of overhearing their script discussions with Surendra I used to come up with ideas and suggestions which visibly had an effect on all three of them. Within a few days Surendra started sending a car to pick me up which was a huge jump from my bus and occasional rides on my father’s scooter life style.
By the time Gopal was ready to shoot the film I rose quite a lot in both Surendra’s and Venket’s eyes but I did not meet Nagarjune yet. Mr.Gopal and his assistants used to feel visibly uncomfortable with my proximity to the producers considering that I was merely a fifth assistant. Also in those days assistant directors were expected to be very subservient.
My attitude and my speaking in English used to understandably turn them off to the extent that when one day Surendra was having a discussion with Mr.Gopal to cut the budget, he suggested to removing me as one of the cuts. Also in just about a week I proved to be the worst assistant director ever by often loosing clapboards and continuity books. So Surendra asked me to lay off and just hang around the set without taking any responsibilities which worked out fantastically for me and because of me being free on the set I slowly started developing a rapport with Nagarjuna who started shooting by then. Nagarjuna used to be pretty impressed with my narrative skills and also my cinematic sense but he himself was not in a very strong position because after the success of his first film ‘Vikram’ which many attributed it to being because of A.N.R’s son’s first film, he had a string of flops and he was no position to make a decision to give me a film.
So in the film industry I managed to attain the status of Nagarjuna’s chamcha and the worst assistant director ever and also as a guy with a huge attitude problem with no hope for the future.
Meanwhile I left my video shop to my staff and they cheated me royally and the business went for a toss. All the “we told you so” guys appeared back and lectured me on how in chasing a foolish dream I went horribly wrong.
And then I turned that wrong into right by making ‘Shiva’ happen.
P.S: I will come back to brag about that shortly.
9/15/2008 The One Kilometer Walk..My father was a sound engineer in Annapurna Studios and due to that he had a pretty good access to the big guns there. I went to him and told him that I wanted to be film director and he thought I had cracked my mind. That was with good reason because there was not a single constructive thing that I have ever done in my life till then. I was a bad student, I was involved with goonda activities in Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijayawada and I had a general track record of being quite a worthless bum. Also at that time it was unheard of that someone without assisting or getting trained in an institute can actually direct. So like I said with a very good reason he thought I got cracked up and advised me not to have pipe dreams.
Coming to terms with the fact that I can’t expect my father to help, I joined as a site engineer in the construction of Hotel Krishna Oberoi in Hyderabad. I went about trying to meet a few film producers and failed. Mr.Ramoji Rao at that time, a few years earlier, started Usha Kiron Movies which gave quite a fresh bunch of non-run of the mill films for that time like “Pratighatana”, “Srivariki Prema Lekha” etc. So in order to have an access to him I wrote an article for his then newspaper “Newstime” titled “The Ideas that killed 30 million people”. The Sub Editor got startled when he saw the title of the article and he immediately published it.
The article was about the influence of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on the mind of Hitler and it was widely read and discussed at that time. Soon on the fame of being the author of that article, I got an appointment with Ramoji Rao and pitched my idea of directing a film to him. He outright rejected the notion on the basis of me having no practical experience at all and my argument with him was that a director does not need experience. He just needs clarity of vision and to have the skill to communicate. He did not buy it.
I was completely disillusioned with the experience as he was the only resort which remained, and then I got an offer of going to Nigeria as an engineer. I was being paid Rs.800/- per month at Hotel Krishna Oberoi and the Nigeria offer stood at Rs.4,000/- per month which obviously was huge and very much needed by my family.
So I gave up my idea of being a director and went about preparing to go to Nigeria. In the course of that I happened to require an international driving license as one of the documents. A friend of mine called Naidu was taking me on his bike to an RTO office where he knew someone to do the needful and en-route he stopped at a video library called Priyadarshini Videos owned by his friend near Lalbahadur Stadium. Those were the days when video libraries were just coming up and that was the first time ever I saw a video library. As Naidu was chatting with his friend I was checking out the cassettes and an idea suddenly dropped into my mind on what if I start a video library. My confidence was that I know about films more than any video library owner. By evening I got so obsessed with the idea that I took my father’s vespa scooter and went all over town to check out 6 to 7 video libraries and by night I firmly made up my mind to drop the idea of going to Nigeria. Everyone including my father, grandfather and uncles thought I completely lost it.
I didn’t obviously have any money at all for my business enterprise. So I went about gathering loans varying from Rs.1,000/- to Rs.3,000/- and managed to raise about Rs.20,000/-. That was kind of ok for buying cassettes, but what about the shop? My father was nearing retirement and he was pretty worried on how to run the family. One of my uncles had a shop in Ameerpet area which he gave to my father without asking for a deposit in which my father was planning to start a juice parlour as a retirement plan. So I went to my father and asked him to give me that shop for the video library. He was just silent and I thought he wanted some time to think about it and I left.
The next day night my uncle took me to Madhu’s bar in Ameerpet and while having a drink he told me how disheartened my father was with my asking for the shop. My father apparently told him that what he kept for his old age also is being demanded from him. I was emotionally so distressed with this that I decided there and then to drop the video library idea, return the loans I have taken and resume my trip to Nigeria. Now the bar where my uncle broke the news was about a kilometer away from my house. So I started walking with the intent to just barge in to my house and tell my father that he can have his shop back. But as I walked my emotions slowly started going down and my logic started coming up.
I told myself that just because my father is feeling disturbed, is it right that I give up what I believe that it will financially and in every which way will improve the quality of our life? So the choice was between, to make him unhappy now and take a chance of making him happy beyond his imagination later or to make him happy for the moment and we all remain unhappy for the rest of our lives. My logic finally took over as I finished the 1 kilometer walk and went into my house. I just ignored my father and went about my preparation for setting up the video library.
The video library became a huge success and was earning more than Rs.20,000/- a month which was a massive jump over my Rs.800/- per month and my dad’s Rs.1500/- salary. My father never ever smiled so brightly and till today I can’t forget the pride with which he looked at me. Also this sudden change in my financial status gave me the strength and foothold to try again to get a break into films.
The point I wanted to make through this article was that the primary reason for me becoming a director was that unscheduled stop Naidu made at that video library and the distance of that 1 kilometer between Madhu’s bar and my house. My reactions to reactions1. What drives you?
Ans: Most times my Land cruiser and sometime my Honda. 2. What can people do when it’s too late?
Ans: There’s no such thing as too late if you truly decide what you really want to do. Right from our birth we are taken forward to get into a trap of expectations and commitments towards our family or society or God or country etc. Fair enough. Many of us have no choice but to heed them because of our physical or emotional obligations. The only alternative we have is to make the choice and psyche ourselves to make the best of it but one thing you should not ever do is to crib or complain or feel frustrated as then the whole point of living itself is lost. 3. Overlooking heart and feelings is a disease Ayn Rand and many of her followers suffer from.
Ans: I don’t know about her followers but through her writings I believe that Ayn Rand has more heart and feelings than anyone else I have know, heard or have read of. 4. Kids speak the truth because of lack of understanding the consequences and very old people speak the truth because it no longer matters.
Ans: Beautifully said. But then there is also a cracked guy like me who speaks the truth because of an obsessive desire to project myself plain pure and dirty. 5. Why was Tom Hagen kicked out in Godfather? I didn’t buy the logic of him not being a war-time consigliore.
Ans: Corporates (of which underworld companies are one) by nature operate on result. If an employee is given authority, funds etc towards a project and if he fails in delivering the expected result he will be kicked out. If Hagen couldn’t see the attack of Solozzo coming or couldn’t prevent the death of Sonny, he had to go. He was given a position to deliver results and not explanations. You and me as readers might feel it’s too harsh a thing for what we feel is not Hagen’s fault, but being in the shoes of the Don and Mike I think it’s highly understandable. 6. How do I break my monotonous boring job and be you?
Ans: By taking a decision. 7. Featuring a character derived from the various nuances of your personality might make a compelling film.
Ans: I don’t know about compelling but it will surely make a madcap film full of contradictions. 8. I could not go past Ayn Rand.
Ans: Reading a book is like visiting another person’s world. The more worlds you visit the more richer you become in your insights. By sticking only to Ayn Rand you are just carrying forward what you learnt only from her, thereby defeating the very purpose of knowledge. The knowledge you get from a book or any other source should be just a stepping stone for the next level. You should not ever carry what should carry you. 9. How did you react when Aag was a flop and Phoonk was a hit? Ans: I Aagghed and I phoonked! 9/9/2008 The Biggest Flop of my LifeJust felt like sharing this one personal experience of mine. It has nothing to do with films. So those of you who are not interested can get off right now. Sometime in 1994 I just returned from Chennai to Hyderabad in the morning and was supposed to catch a flight to Mumbai in the evening. I was taking a nap in the afternoon when my sister suddenly woke me up and told me my distant cousin Bujji from Bhimavaram was on the phone. (Those days there were no cell phones yet.). I wondered why she woke me up for that and she said Bujji says it’s very urgent. Curious as Bujji was not even that close to me, I went to the phone and Bujji said that Dad had a heart attack and died, and before I could say anything he asked me if I was alone. When I said ‘no’ as my mom and sister were there near me, he asked me to come outside and call him from another phone. I started walking towards a STD booth at the end of the road with my brother-in-law following me. I was wondering why Bujji is being so secretive about his dad having a heart attack and dying. As I was nearing the booth it slowly started dawning upon me that he was talking about my dad. I turned around and asked my brother-in-law where my dad was and he said he went to Bhimavaram the previous day.
My fear being confirmed I called up Bujji and he told me the same and asked me whether we would be coming there or should he bring the body. I told him to bring the body. I turned around and told my brother-in-law about what happened and he just sat down on the road in shock. I personally was not feeling anything as I was seriously thinking about how to break the news to my mother. I quickly made a few calls to some relatives and told them that they will get to hear it from somewhere sooner or later and asked them not to come to my house till I prepare my mother.
Then in the walk back I thought of a story to tell my mother. I told her that Dad suffered some pain in the chest and I asked them to bring him to Hyderabad as there are better medical facilities here. When she got panicky I told her cheerfully that he is perfectly fine. My whole intention was to reduce the time of her crying before the body reaches and also for me to have time to plan how to make her slowly absorb the final shock. I literally went about doing a screenplay of sorts, sent some guys to the end of the road to stop any over enthusiastic relatives coming to console her and I made a friend of mine do mock phone conversations in front of my mother as if he is talking to people who are bringing my father and to say that the pain is increasing. That was my way of attempting to bring my mother slowly closer to the ultimate truth.
Finally this whole exercise happened till 11in the night and I went off to sleep. So far I have not felt anything at all as I was too busy doing scenes around to cushion my mother. At around 2.am my cousin woke me up and said the body is here. I came out and saw the car on the road in which they brought the body, and that’s when the reality first hit me. I told my cousin to take the car to his house and only bring it in the morning so that we can quickly do the funeral arrangements in the morning and spare my mother from the trauma of sitting with the body till the morning. Morning around 5.am my grandfather broke the news to my mother and by that time seeing all the activity building around I am sure she suspected it.
My uncle came and told me that my father has written a will that he wants to donate his eyes and body. My relatives told me to ignore that will and just do the rites as per traditions. I said I want to do as per my father’s wishes, and I went in and told my mother if she will have any objection to me going as per dad’s wishes. She asked me to do whatever I thought was right even as she was crying. I called the eye institute guys and two young nurses landed up in rickshaw. I still remember them laughing, as they got out of the rickshaw, at some private joke between each other. Their cheerful laughter contrasted so macaberly against the crying sounds and the somber look of the entire atmosphere. They sent everyone out, did whatever technical procedure to take the eyes and after they left my people told me it’s time to take the body to the hospital, I went in to see my mother next to the body of my father and there was a redness around his eyes and a slit which was angled because of whatever the girls from the institute did to take out the eyes.
I felt a tremendous guilt and anger against myself that I subjected my mother to see a man who she lived with for 40 years that way for the last time especially since she always used to talk about how much she loved my father’s eyes. That decision I have taken just in the name of fulfilling my father’s wishes, but I failed to foresee what the practical application of that procedure will subject my mother too. This I think is the biggest flop I made in my life.
Next day I told my mother let’s not do any 7th day or 11th day kind of rituals as we should remember him from happy times and not make an exhibition seeking sympathy. I gave her a long lecture of how she should look at everything positively. The next day I heard my mother crying in her room and I got upset that my lecture didn’t work. In the afternoon I heard a strange sound and when I went upstairs, I saw that it is my brother crying and that’s the first time I ever heard him cry and was thinking to myself that this is how it sounds when he cries. Throughout this entire process I did not feel for one second any grief myself and that was nothing to do with me and my father’s relationship. I loved him and respected him immensely. It’s just that I was in a state of film, for want of a better term.
I went to Mumbai after a few days to meet Naseeruddin Shah as I was casting him in a certain film. As soon as he saw me he got up and said he was very sorry to hear about my mother. Somebody gave him wrong info that it is my mother, so as not to embarrass him I didn’t tell him. Then he went on to talk about his mother and asking questions on how my father was taking it. The fact that I didn’t stop him in the beginning itself it became even more difficult now to tell him that he got it wrong. So I went through the entire comedy.
Years later somewhere in 2003 or so, I was in Pune in Nana Patekar’s house. Me, Nana, Shimit Amin and Sandeep the writer of “Ab Tak Chappan” were doing a script session. In the context of a scene for a reference I started narrating my father’s episode and when I came to the part of the nurses from the eye institute and its aftermath, I suddenly got choked and broke down. Nana had to hold me in his arms to control me. It took me 9 years to cry and that too for more than my father, it was for that biggest flop I made. My reactions to reactions1. Do you even think of social problems like poverty, communalism, alcoholism, drug abuse, pollution, etc and what would you do about it?
Ans: No. Nothing. 2. What do you think happens after death?
Ans: I am more interested in thinking of what will happen in the next one hour. 3. What you are saying might anger Hindus.
Ans: Ok, I am buying a ticket to Mecca. 4. When you are not good at English, how can you understand Ayan Rand’s work?
Ans: I read her thoughts, not her vocabulary. 5. Who is John Galt?
Ans: Certain aspects of me. 6. How many relationships did you have with aspiring actresses?
Ans: If I tell you, you will die of jealousy. 7. What was the one incident that influenced you the most in shaping you as RGV?
Ans: When I was 6 months old I fell on my head. 8. In Sarkar Raj I saw Telugu signboards.
Ans: I saw them too. 9. You are as vulnerable as Peter Keating, as brilliant as Ellsworth Toohey and consider yourself as Howard Roark. Ans: Actually I have a schizophrenic mix of Ellsworth Toohey and Peter Keating in me, but many times I successfully pass off myself as Howard Roark especially to girls and investors. 9/4/2008 My reactions to reactions1. Your movies and attitude show no sign of positiveness.
Ans: And your views on the same show no sign of positiveness either. 2. What inspires you to resort to such radical compositions and oblique camera angles?
Ans: Anything and everything are the same to all people. The way one individual chooses to look at it is what which makes it look different. That is the way I choose to look at things. 3. Do you read philosophy? What are your preferences?
Ans: I was very influenced by Marxism in my early days till I discovered Ayn Rand. But the fact that one reading of Fountainhead could destroy years of my belief in communism drove home a point to me that when you believe in something or agree, it’s only valid till you hear something else which could undermine what you believed until then. So I went on to read Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche among others. Finally after the entire exercise, Nietzsche in terms of his intensity of thought and belief, and Ayn Rand in terms of logic and rationality stayed with me. The sum learning of mine of applied philosophy is best quoted in this line from Ayan Rand’s “The Romantic Manifesto” – “The pursuit of truth is not important. What is important is the pursuit of that truth which helps you in reaching your goal”, that is of course provided if you have a goal in the first place to start with. Most of us don’t have a goal. We wish for things but we rarely will ourselves to achieve them.
The German philosopher Schopenhauer in his book “The World As Will and Idea” said “you see with your eyes, you hear with your ears, you feel with a touch, and all these senses are nothing but functions of your mind which is nothing but a thought which is an idea.” So the fact you are reading this blog and interacting with me or doing anything with anybody or anything else could be just a figment of your imagination. Thereby if you close your eyes and go to sleep, I and they and everything in the world cease to exist. And when you open your eyes in the morning the world comes back to you and this is the truth for not only you but every living being, and it comes back in different shapes, forms and emotional states for each and every life form on the planet.
Applying this theory of Schopenhauer, I identified a world of my own which is filled with my kind of music, my kind of films, my kind of people, gangsters, ghosts, girls with sexy bums etc. If anybody chooses to visit it, they might like some, dislike some or completely reject. It’s their choice, but I surely am not going to leave my world until I leave this world.
4. Can you differentiate between making love, fucking and having sex?
Ans: Making love is an emotional experience which makes you feel a high about your love and yourself. Fucking is an intense experience which borders on a feeling of wanting to conquer or achieve. And having sex is a necessity like to sneeze or to cough. 5. For what part of life do you do things you decide and what part does life decide for you?
Ans: My life only belongs to things that I decide because even if life decides some things for me, I immediately decide something else on top of life’s decisions so that they again become my decisions. The bottom line is that, I don’t listen to life. 6. Why re you using such derogatory language and calling it a metaphor?
Ans: This blog is meant for evolved people and people who understand metaphor. If you don’t qualify, do yourself a favour and don’t come back into this space. 7. All your leading ladies got similar personalities.
Ans: That’s the way I like my women, buddy. 8. What is wrong with Fellini’s films?
Ans: I have no idea who he is? 9. Relationships are just love and not need. Your mother won’t love you for need.
Ans: For your information my mother gave up on me when I was in the 5th standard. And just in case, if you start off on a psycho analytical trip on that be informed that I hate friends, mother’s love, dogs, kids and flowers. Friends because I don’t need them, and mother’s love because I hate being fawned, dogs and kids because they take away attention from me and flowers because they remind me that keep forgetting to get them for my girl friend. And hello just in case you are about to hire a battery of psychiatrists realize that the whole above thing is just half a joke. Just try and figure out which half. 10. Please be humble to the audience because without them you are nothing.
Ans: Ok Guruji, why stop at just being humble. For my next film I will build a temple for them and pray to them. Will you please become my pujari? 11. Why was the camera lingering for so long on Hanuman’s poster in Phoonk?
Ans: Maybe they were lovers in their past birth. 9/1/2008 I love "phoonking"I came back from my Engineering entrance exam and told my father that I did the test so badly that if I pass the test everyone else who has written will pass. I realized later that it was a terribly insensitive thing to say to my lower middle class father who was struggling to make ends meet. It's just that at that given moment of time I loved the way I phrased that line of how bad I was and quite oblivious to the concern it would cause him.
I think this was a promo of how bad this particular trait of mine would turn out. Today instead of my father, it could be the actors, technicians, investors, audience etc. But was I doing it deliberately? Not really because the reason I did the test so badly was because instead of studying I was watching films. I was and am on this constant high of living every moment of my life to the fullest and in the course of it I "phoonk" things unintentionally.
The only silver lining to this trait of mine is that I continue "phoonking" relentlessly so as a result good things come out of it too. To give you an example when somebody asked me to name the worst film I made, I said it's "Drohi". That's because only I know my state of mind and how I went about making that film. But inadvertently "Drohi" became responsible for two of the best films of my career and probably my standing in the industry today. I came to Mumbai to sign Madhuri Dixit for "Drohi". Her secretary told me her dates are not available for 6 months. Boney Kapoor suggested that there is this new girl called Urmila who has done a film called "Narasimha". When I saw the film I didn't think much of her but as I was in hurry because of Nagarjuna's impending dates and no one else available, I signed her. The film failed and she was written about negatively too. In the course of making "Drohi" me and Mani Ratnam together wrote a script called "Gayam" in which for a supporting role Mani suggested Urmila. That's not because he thought much of her either but just that she might be ok for the role. Now while shooting for "Gaayam" when Urmila did a certain dance movement I just got so mesmerized that I got inspired to make "Rangeela".
I was very impressed with this story of a James Hadley Chase novel where a gangster falls in love with a girl and the girl does not know that he is a gangster. By the time he wants to get out it’s too late and he dies. I made this story into "Drohi" and when it failed I changed the setting and backdrop and years later remade it as "Satya".
So in effect "Drohi" caused both "Rangeela" and "Satya" to happen. If I didn't meet Urmila, I would not have made "Rangeela" and if "Drohi" worked I wouldn't have made "Satya". So if today my standing in the industry is substantially due to "Rangeela" and "Satya", only I know how much my mind state of "Drohi" contributed to it. So any outsider who would have thought I phoonkd "Drohi" he would not realize how much I got out of the same film elsewhere.
Similarly when I came to Mumbai to show Sanjay Dutt "Gaayam" he was very keen to get it made in Hindi which was titled "Nayak". I also had "Rangeela" project with me. My funders were not keen on "Rangeela" but were gung-ho on "Nayak", the reason being Sanjay Dutt at that time was a much bigger star than Aamir. Since I was insistent on doing both films they reluctantly agreed to fund both films thinking "Nayak" will cover "Rangeela's" lossess. After shooting for 15 days for "Nayak" Sanjay got arrested in the blast case and was in jail for a long time. Meanwhile "Rangeela" got completed and became a blockbuster. Also in the same waiting period I did a Telugu film called "Anaganaga Oka Roju" which became a super hit. So by the time Sanjay came out I felt instead of making a serious dark film like "Nayak" let me scrap "Nayak" and make a caper film like "Anaganaga Oka Roju" and ended up making "Daud". Years later I remade "Nayak" as "Sarkar". So in effect what I started out to make what triggered me off at each point of time, what excited me at any given moment results in variously different good, bad, ugly films but only I know in my heart what resulted from where. Purely based on that knowledge, I have no regrets about a single decision I ever made because as long as you keep making decisions something or the other will keep happening. This is because decisions will create energy and work and whether they turn out to be good or bad cannot be judged necessarily in reference to any specific time or event. The point is that a life's momentum is in an ability to make decisions and I take great pleasure in doing that.
That's why I said "I love phoonking" even though I do get "phoonkd" many a time.
I strongly believe that both making love and fucking are equally fantastic in their own different ways but it is having sex is what I think is obscene.
And before any of you guys jump on to me with blazing guns for the above line try to understand that it is a metaphor... but then maybe it is not :)
Any ways see you,
and Happy "phoonking"
My reactions to reactions1. You should make a special appearance in your film. Ans: I know I don't look good. But what you have suggested me to play...... Well it hurt me. I hope my girl friends won't read what you wrote. 2. Why did you highlight the artifacts in Phoonk? Ans: If I have to explain that, the purpose was lost. 3. Who killed the new contractor in Phoonk? Ans: I am not sure but it could be the crow or maybe it's the Nimboo. You never know in these kinds of films. 4. Lately you seem to be a bit mellowed down. Ans: You must be crazier than me. I think many concerned people are about to lock me up for my craziness. 5. I have not seen Khamosh Pani, but Maqbool is a good movie. Ans: Hello! I was not talking about their merit. Read my piece again and this time take the help of someone who has better brains. 6. How was the shot taken in Phoonk when the camera revolves around the girl as she is going to school? Ans: With a sagway attachment to the steadicam. It is a battery driven two-wheel vehicle which allows the cameraman to stand and travel on it holding the steadicam. 7. Do you hate the people who like you or do you like the people who hate you? Ans: Like is not the right word. I definitely am more interested in people who hate me than the people who like me. Because from the people who hate me I can learn or unlearn something whereas the people who like me I take them for granted. 8. What is your view on human relationships? Ans: They are need-based. 9. Success lies in telling a complete story in an entertaining way. Ans: Ho--Hum! 10. Your post is very confusing. Ans: Wait a few years and try reading again. 11. If Thakur's family is your films, you cannot be Gabbar as they both are staunch enemies. Ans: Hello, I meant that in the analogy of that scene. If you can't get it, get someone's help to make you understand. 12. Your talk on love and saying love only sometimes gives good sex leaves no room for other relationships. Ans: Try to know a joke when you see it. Secondly I believe that true love can only exist with a child or a dog as in both cases the receiving party won't expect more than a cuddle or pat or a sweet. In the case of adults, well... 13. Indifference is worse than being hated. Ans: Thanks for reminding. After reading your post I am indifferent to you. 14. In Phoonk why did Madhu perform black magic in a cave instead of her house? Ans: Er... I wanted to ask Madhu. But she died. |
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