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The return of Shiva
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Ram Gopal Varma takes the lead in the race for remakes with his pet project, "Shiva 2006"
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HIT REVISITED Ram Gopal Varma
Call it returning to his roots or pure nostalgia, but film-maker 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.
Old wine in new bottle
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 on the campus and practical difficulty faced by a young cop in a big city. The concept is nothing new. Such cop stories 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 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."
SANGEETHA DEVI K
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