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Shiva's born again
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The redoubtable Ramgopal Varma once dismissed his iconic debut film Shiva as childish in retrospect. Maybe, he tells MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER, its remake marks his second childhood
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CONSTANT FLUX Ramgopal Varma: `I change my mind every six months' PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
In 1989, when Shiva was released, a new grammar of filmmaking was unleashed. The man behind the steadycam shots and the iconic cycle chain incident, Ramgopal Varma, has since moved from Telugu cinema and Hyderabad to Mumbai and Bollywood.
His edgy worldview and never ending love affair with the city has been accepted by some and roundly rejected by the others.
Three years ago, flush from the success of his little scare fest Bhoot, Varma categorically stated he would not want to revisit Shiva and that he found the cycle chain a rather "childish" metaphor summarily breaking the heart of yours truly. So the announcement of a remake of Shiva was met with incredulity, to put it mildly.
When reminded of his comment on the original Shiva, Varma laughs: "It is quite possible that I said that. I change my mind every six months. I said the cycle chain was childish? Then maybe I am going through a second childhood! Growing up all over again!"
A hero never dies
Getting serious, he says: "During the production of James, there was a thought to remake the film. I thought instead of remaking James why not remake Shiva, which is a film I am close to, I started my career with the film. The concept of a hero never dies out so whenever there is anything wrong with the system a Shiva will be born."
Varma, who prides himself on not showing blood on screen despite the violent undercurrents, insists there is no blood in the remake either.
"I know what you are referring to — the nail being hammered into the head, right? If you watch the film closely after the nail is placed on the man's head and the hammer brought down, I cut to a close up of the aggressor's face and it is the sound that makes you feel that you are seeing blood on screen. There is no blood."
Ilayaraja (who composed the music for the original) also scored the music this time round and the controversial (the censors had problems with it) song "Chor Police" has echoes of "Botany Pattumundi."
"That is for recall value," says Varma, legendary for his sound judgment as far as music goes. Remember his is one of three Telugu movies the celebrated R.D. Burman composed for.
Varma does not hold much to the view about Bollywood going international.
"It is what we like telling ourselves. Lagaan is a one off-thing. When you think of it, ours is the second largest film industry in the world and Lagaan lost the Oscar to a film from Bosnia! Anyway, I do not believe in this concept of countries making films: individuals make films. Ang Lee, Wong Kar Wai are individuals, not countries. A film could be made in Hollywood by someone from Behrampur."
Varma feels that the technological advances in Hollywood are not the only reason we cannot compare with the West.
"Big budgets are not the point, we need big imaginations to go with them." Varma, who chooses to remain "Nishabd" on his Lolita take, has finalised some of his cast for his remake of Sholay — Amitabh Bachchan (Gabbar Singh), Mohanlal (Thakur), Mohit Ahlawat (who plays Shiva) as Jai and Ajay Devgan as Veeru.
While Sarkar (there is a sequel coming up) was Varma's tribute to Coppola's The Godfather, another film he would love to remake is McKenna's Gold. "There is nothing called an original film. Every film is a remake of an earlier film. The original Shiva was inspired by Ardh Satya and the cycle goes on... "
Varma's advice to wannabe filmmakers is: "Do not listen to anybody. If I had listened to my parents I would have been running a video store instead of making movies."
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