I’m working on 12-13 scripts: Ram Gopal Varma (Interview)

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NEW DELHI - A “Phoonk” sequel, two 3-D films, a gangster movie, a two-part biopic and a film on fake godmen… If you thought this was all that filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has on his plate, hold your breath — he has a dozen more.

“Right now there are 12-13 scripts I am working on,” Varma told IANS in an interview. “They are all from different genres and they will all be made when we are ready to make them. We’ll release them only when they are ready.”

“They are all ideas being developed by various people. They’ll all be made in their own time. Some may be directed by me or produced by me, may be not made or revamped or may be put in the cold storage for some time and then retrieved later or if everything falls together, I might want to start a picture immediately.”

“But the moment I start working on an idea with a writer, it’ll come out to the media. I’m at any given point of time developing 10-12 ideas with my writers…For that matter people know only five (ideas/scripts), actually I have 10 more,” he added.

The 48-year-old is known for making films mostly inspired by real-life incidents like “Rann”, upcoming “Rakta Charitra” and “God and Sex”.

Asked about his fascination for topical films, he said: “I have a certain interest in topical matters that are out of the ordinary. I have a certain streak of an investigative journalist in me and a combination of all these is what makes me take up films like that.”

Politics too has been a common denominator in his films like “Shiva”, “Sarkar”, “Sarkar Raj” and “Rann”.

“I basically like power equations and people who dabble with power, who dare and control. I have a certain thing for that. In school also I used to admire bullies.

“Simple people, simple relationships and family - they bore me. What I am interested is in power play. So somewhere invariably that comes across,” he explained.

So does that mean a political career for him in the future?

“No,” he protested. “I never voted in my life to start with. I don’t even know who is the chief minister of my state. I am absolutely ignorant of politics,” he said.

“And above that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work for the welfare of people. I’ll be the last person to be a politician,” he added.

Coming to his projects, Varma, who is planning a third sequel to his scary outing “Phoonk”, doesn’t deny a franchise too.

“‘Phoonk 3′ is there definitely and if that also works then we’ll come out with a franchise. ‘Phoonk’ is an idea which can be continued,” he said.

What about “God and Sex”, apparently inspired by self-styled godman Swami Nityananda’s alleged sex scandal?

“On ‘God and Sex’, the research is complete and right now we are working on the scripting…It’s high time we looked into the closed doors of an ashram,” the director said.

Then there is “Department” that marks Varma’s return to movies on the underworld after the ‘Indian gangster trilogy’ - “Satya”, “Company” and “D”.

“‘Department’ is almost like the other side of ‘Company’. If ‘Company’ dealt with an underworld organisation, this will be about the police world,” he said.

His two-part trilingual “Rakta Charitra”, which stars Vivek Oberoi, is about slain rebel-turned political leader Paritala Ravi.

What about the 3-D projects?

“We are planning two to three films which are 3-D compatible. ‘Raksha’ (working title) is an action-adventure film which I’ll be starting by the year-end with John (Abraham),” he said.

“And there’s a yet to be titled 3-D horror film, which has been planned with Riteish (Deshmukh),” he added.

(Robin Bansal can be contacted at robin.b@ians.in)