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The return of Shiva
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Umrao Jaan and Don will keep their dates with audiences later this year. Ram Gopal Varma has taken the lead in the race for remakes with his pet project, Shiva 2006
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PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR
TIME-TESTED FORMULA Ramgopal Varma: `People love clichés; everyone likes to identify with a hero'
Call it returning to his roots or pure nostalgia, but filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is convinced that he made the right decision — to revisit his first hit, Shiva.
Seventeen years after Nagarjuna chalked his path to superstardom, with some help from the now famous cycle chain scene, Varma is ready with Shiva 2006, which stars his current favourites Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari.
The campus setting has given way to a police training academy and the cycle chain sequence is missing. Shiva 2006 doesn't have a character equivalent to that of Raghuvaran as well. "To break the rhythm, I got rid of the obvious references. But those who remember the original will be able to spot some striking similarities," says Varma.
Talking of how the idea germinated, Varma says: "One of my previous productions, James, was an attempt to do something like Shiva. But James didn't turn out as expected. So I decided to remake Shiva myself." Having decided on that, he had no second thoughts on his lead stars — Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari — who featured in James.
What's the new Shiva up against? "A lot has changed with time; the new film will resonate with the situation today: The conflict between idealism taught in the campus as opposed to practical difficulty faced by a young cop in a big city. The concept is nothing new. Such cop stories that have been told 300 times since Zanjeer. But people love clichés; everyone likes to identify with a hero who rises to the occasion and fights for a girl who is teased on the roads."
Varma asserts that his intention was to see Shiva in a new frame than trying to better the flaws in the original.
"Shiva was path-breaking for its time in using steady cam and in its use of sound. Shiva 2006 is also technically excellent."
What's next? "Nishabd and then Sholay," he says, adding hastily, "I'm tired of saying that Nishabd is not based on Lolita. It's a story of an elderly man falling in love with a younger woman. The similarity ends there."
For Shiva 2006, Ramgopal Varma has gone back to music maestro Ilaiyaraja for old times sake and some unforgettable melody. Meanwhile, he's signed on Himmesh Reshammiya for the new Sholay to belt out "Mehbooba" Says Varma: "People like me in the south have grown up listening to Ilaiyaraja. He was one of the last composers known for his melody. But when I played Shiva's music, I got extreme reactions from Mumbaiites who haven't heard much of his music. Fardeen Khan thought I was out of my mind to have this kind of music. Abhishek Bachchan loved it and refused to listen to anything else for a while.
For Shiva 2006, we've kept the "Botany" song. I also chose some of the old tunes composed by Ilaiyraja earlier, including those from Mani Ratnam's Gitanjali, and incorporated them. But I guess the younger crowd in the north prefers Himmesh, which is why I asked him to sing "Mehbooba".
SANGEETHA DEVI K.
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