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Saturday, October 2, 2010

RAMGOPAL VARMA


Ram Gopal Varma, better known as RGV (Telugu: రామ్ గోపాల్ వర్మ, born 7 April 1962) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. Varma has directed, written and produced films across multiple genres—psychological thrillers, underworld gang warfare, politician-criminal nexus, and musicals—and in multiple languages—Telugu and Hindi.

Shiva (1989) was his first film as director and Rann (2010) is his most recent one. He gained recognition in Hindi cinema, also known as "Bollywood", withRangeela (1995). The next film he directed was Satya (1998), which won six Filmfare Awards, including the Critics Award for Best Film. Satya, together with his 2002 film Company (which he directed and which won seven Filmfare Awards) and 2005 film D (which he produced), form an "Indian Gangster Trilogy". Other successful films Varma directed include Kshana Kshanam (1991), Kaun (1999), Jungle (2000), Bhoot (2003), Sarkar (2005) and Sarkar Raj (2008).


Ram Gopal varma Penmetsa was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India to Krishnam Raju Penmetsa and Satyavathi. Varma was not a good student in school and used to skip classes regularly, something that strained his relationship with his family, particularly his father.Early years

In an interview to Tehelka, Varma talked about that phase of his life, his relationship with his parents, and the reasons behind his decision to become a filmmaker-

“"From my parents’ perspective, I looked like a useless bum. It was the truth. I had no objective. I was just fascinated by people, so I used to study their behaviour. I was most fascinated by the bullies in my classroom. They were like gangsters for me. They had the guts to push around people, do things I couldn’t— perhaps did not even want to do myself. But I’d want a friend like that (laughs). I used to adulate them like heroes. That was my first touch with anti-socialism. Over a period of time, I developed a low-angle fascination for larger than life people. I was always a loner — not because I was unhappy, but because I live away from myself, not just others. I like to study myself — the way I am talking, behaving. My constant obsession with studying myself and other people is perhaps the primary motivation for me to be a filmmaker."”

Varma is a civil engineer by profession and graduated from the V.R.Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada. Even during this period, Varma remained a film buff. He would skip classes often and go and watch films instead - 8-10 films a week. He would watch the same film repeatedly "just to watch certain scenes which interested him." According to him, that is how he learned film direction..

After graduation, Varma tried entering the film industry, but couldn't manage it. He then put his dreams on the backburner and decided to go to Nigeria to make some money. It was at this moment that he visited a video rental library in Hyderabad. He loved the idea and decided to start one of his own, all because of his craze for films.


Career in Telugu cinema

Before Varma started his film career in the Telugu film industry he lingered in the sets of the films Raogaarillu and Collectorgari Abbai. His father was a sound recordist at Annapurna Studios, Hyderabad which is owned by Akkineni Nageswara Rao.Varma managed to meet Nagarjuna on the sets of a film and narrated a scene to the actor which impressed him so much that Varma's dream of becoming a director came true.The result of their collaboration was a film on the criminalization of student politics - Shiva. The film was a blockbuster with Varma demonstrating his technical expertise and story-telling skills. The success of the film in Telugu led to a Hindi remake with similar success.

Varma's next film was Kshana Kshanam, a Telugu movie with Venkatesh & Sridevi which got him noticed by Bollywood critics. The film was also dubbed into Hindi as Hairaan. Then came a lean patch with films such as Raatri / Raat and Antham / Drohi. While Gaayam with Jagapathi Babu was a success, Govinda Govinda with Nagarjuna & Sridevi proved to be dud at the box-office. During this period, Varma also produced films such as Money and Money Money, and wrote the script for the Mani Rathnam film Thiruda Thiruda


Career in Hindi cinema

While Varma's first successful Hindi film was the remake of Siva, His next film was Drohi. The film that really put the spotlights on him was the blockbuster Rangeela. With great acting from the lead trio of Aamir Khan, Jackie Shroff and Urmila Matondkar, a fantastic soundtrack by composer A. R. Rahman (this being his first original score for a Hindi film), and with Varma at the helm, it was no surprise that this romantic musical drama was a runaway success. The film won Filmfare Awards for Rahman and Shroff. The film, according to Varma, was dedicated to actress Sridevi. His next filmDaud (1997), however, was a failure and sank without a trace.

In 1998, Varma was an executive producer for Dil Se, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala and Preity Zinta. The film won the NETPAC Award for Special Mention at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as two National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards.


Indian Gangster Trilogy

Main articles: Satya (film), Company (film), and D (film)

In 1998 came his masterpiece, the critically acclaimed Satya, a film based on the Mumbai underworld. A script written by Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla, music by Vishal Bharadwaj andSandeep Chowta, acclaimed performances by J. D. Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpai and Urmila Matondkar, and Varma's directorial and technical brilliance, contributed to a film that was a landmark. The film won six Filmfare Awards, including the Critics Award for Best Film.

In 2002 came his greatest commercial as well as critical success, Company, again set against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld, in which he cut out song-and-dance sequences commonplace in Bollywood films at the time. It was based on the real-life underworld organization, the D-Company. The film won seven Filmfare Awards and earned him a Filmfare Best Director Awardnomination.Mohanlal debuted in bollywood in this film.

A prequel to Company was made in 2005, entitled D, produced by Varma and directed by Vishram Sawant. Varma's three films Satya, Company and D are together considered an "Indian Gangster Trilogy". Satya and Company in particular were cited by British director Danny Boyle as influences on his Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), for their "slick, often mesmerizing portrayals of the Mumbai underworld", their display of "brutality and urban violence", and their gritty realism.


Experimental films

During the years between his "Indian Gangster Trilogy", from Satya in 1998 to D in 2005, Varma experimented with several different film genres in the intervening years. In 1999, he directed Kaun, asuspense thriller set entirely in one house and featuring only three actors, and Mast, a subversion of the Bollywood masala musical film genre. In 2000, he directed Jungle, a film set entirely in ajungle, for which he was nominated for the Star Screen Award for Best Director.

Following the success of Company in 2002, Varma's next film as director was Bhoot (2003), a psychological horror film, which was a major success. It starred Ajay Devgan and Urmila Matondkar, who earned a number of awards for her performance. Varma himself was nominated for the Filmfare Best Director Award for the film.

Following the success of Bhoot, Varma was a producer for two other experimental films: Sriram Raghavan's Ek Hasina Thi (2003), a psychological thriller, and Shimit Amin's Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), a film about an inspector in the Mumbai Encounter Squad famous for having killed 56 people in police encounters. In 2005, Varma was nominated for the Zee Cine Award for Best Producer of the Year.


Later films

Varma's next film as director was Sarkar, released in June 2005, starring Amitabh Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan. Amitabh played the character of Sarkar who is a self-righteous and powerful politician, while Abhishek played his son in the film. Sarkar was a loose adaptation of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather in a Mumbai underworld setting. Sarkar went on to become a critically acclaimed box office hit.

In 2006, his next film as director was Shiva, which premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival, where a retrospective featuring several of his previous films was also staged. Alongside Shiva, the festival screened his earlier successful films Company, Ek Hasina Thi and Ab Tak Chhappan. While these three earlier films were praised,Shiva itself was a critical and commercial failure. In 2007, he directed the ambitious Sholay remake, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, as well as Darling, both of which were critical and box office disasters.

He was written off by the media and public until June 2008, when he reclaimed,to some extent,his lost reputation with his much hyped venture, Sarkar Raj, a sequel to Sarkar; it was an average and met with good reviews. The primary cast features three members of the Bachchan family, with Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan reprising their roles from the prequel alongside new entrant Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Supriya Pathak, Tanisha Mukherjee and Ravi Kale also reappeared in their respective roles from Sarkar. Unlike its prequel Sarkar, which was loosely adapted from The Godfather novel, the sequel Sarkar Raj had an original plot of its own. And though it was declared flop in India,it became a runaway hit overseas,thus faring semi-hit overall.

His latest film, Phoonk (2008), was of the horror film genre and met with mixed reviews, with more of them leaning to the negative side. However, the film was a major hit in comparison to its minuscule budget. Varma has now finished working on Agyaat which released on 7 August 2009, again a commercial as well as critical failure. Next Was Rann, a film about the media. It had a major star cast with Varma's favourite actor Amitabh Bachchan; Kannada actor Sudeep, who did the lead in Phoonk; Ritesh Deshmukh and Paresh Rawal. Released on 29 January 2010, the film was praised by some critics, but was a commercial disaster. Then he began the promotion works for Phoonk 2, a sequel of Phoonk, which was released on April 16, 2010.

At present, he is working on Rakta Charitra, a trilingual made simultaneously in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil languages. this movie is based upon the Faction backdrop of the rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh. As the entire film is said to last for about 5 hours, the film will be divided into two parts, which will be releasing within a gap of three months. The film is said to depict the life of the slain political leader Paritala Ravindra, played by Vivek Oberoi, with Tamil actor Surya Sivakumar, enacting the role of Maddelacheruvu Suri, Shatrughan Sinha, playing N. T. Rama Rao, Radhika Apte andPriyamani in other pivotal roles. The film, currently in its production stage, will be released in late 2010.

Varma has also announced another horror film titled 'Warning'. This film will be the first 3D horror film made in India and is reported to have Ritesh Deshmukh in a significant role.


Ram gopal varma announced a movie to be directed by himself in his mother tongue Telugu with Comedian turned Hero Sunil Varma as lead titled "KATHA SCRRENPLAY DARSAKTHVAM APPALARAJU". The film was announced in July last week and shooting started in August 2010 last week, with the opening function attended by his favourite actor Sridevi. This would be his comeback film in Telugu after a long gap of 12 years. his last direction being Prema katha. the movie KSD Appalaraju is said to be a satire on Telugu Film Industry mainly targeting Directors. He already released a song "evaddabba sothu kadura talent" durin the launch of the film targeting almost all the Tollywood Directors. The song starts with a satire on himself "with luck he got shiva hit and he spoiled sholay" when translated into English. The song covered almost all the veteran Directors like Raghavendra rao, E.V.V, Kodi Ramakrishna, B.Gopal to the current star Directors S.S Rajamouli, Sreenu Vaitla, Puri Jagannadh, Vinayak, Boyapti Seenu and so forth.


Controversy

Varma, along with the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deshmukh's son Ritesh Deshmukh visited the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel soon after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.


Awards and nominations

Nandi Award for Best Director
Bollywood Award for Best Director
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie
Filmfare Best Director Award
Star Screen Award for Best Director
Zee Cine Award for Best Director
Zee Cine Award for Best Producer of the Year
  • Nominated, 2005


Filmography


As director

YearFilmLanguageNotes
1989ShivaTelugu
1990ShivaHindi
1991Kshana KshanamTelugu
1992AnthamTelugu
1992RaathriTelugu
1992RaatHindi
1993GaayamTelugu
1993Govinda GovindaTelugu
1995RangeelaHindi
1996DeyyamTelugu
1996Anaganaga Oka RojuTelugu
1997DaudHindi
1998SatyaHindi
1999Prema KathaTelugu
1999KaunHindi
1999MastHindi
2000JungleHindi
2002CompanyHindi
2003BhootHindi
2004NaachHindiMultiplex movie
2005SarkarHindi
2006ShivaHindi
2006Darna Zaroori HaiHindi
2007NishabdHindi
2007Ram Gopal Varma Ki AagHindi
2007DarlingHindiMultiplex movie
2008Sarkar RajHindi
2008ContractHindiMultiplex movie
2008Phoonk - The Black Magic StoryHindi
2009AgyaatHindiMultiplex movie
2010RannHindi
2010Rakta Charitra-Part ITelugu/Hindi/Tamil22nd October 2010 Release (Tentative)
2010Rakta Charitra-Part IITelugu/Hindi/TamilYet to decide the release date. Both the films are shot at one stretch but will be released in 2 parts since the duration of the film is over 5 hours.
2010Katha,Screenplay,Darshakatvam AppalarajuTeluguShooting. Starring Telugu Comedian Sunil as Hero
2010DepartmentHindiPre-Production
2011Bejawada RowdeeluTeluguPre-Production


As producer

YearFilmLanguageNotes
1992RaathriTelugu
1992RaatHindi
1993MoneyTelugu
1995Money MoneyTelugu
1995Anaganaga Oka RojuTelugu
1996GulabiTelugu
1996W/O V varaprasadTelugu
1998Dil SeHindiCo- Produced along with Mani Ratnam and Shekhar Kapur.
2001Love Ke Liye Kuchh Bhi KaregaHindi
2002RoadHindi
2003Ek Hasina ThiHindi
2003Darna Mana HaiHindi
2004Ab Tak ChhappanHindi
2004Vaastu ShastraHindi
2004GayabHindi
2005DHindi
2005JamesHindi
2005SarkarHindiThe best tribute to the movie Godfather
2006Darwaza Bandh RakhoHindiGood Opening but collections fell drastically
2006ShivaHindi
2006Darna Zaroori HaiHindi
2007NishabdHindi
2007Ram Gopal Varma Ki AagHindi
2007GoHindi
2008Sarkar RajHindi
2009AdaviTelugu
2009AgyaatHindi
2010Phoonk 2Hindi
2010Rakta Charitra-Part ITelugu/Hindi/Tamil22nd October 2010 Release (Tentative)
2010Rakta Charitra-Part IITelugu/Hindi/TamilYet to Decide the release date. Both the films are shot at one stretch but will be released in 2 parts since the duration of the film is over 5 hours.
2010DepartmentHindiPre-Production.
2010God and SexHindiPre-Production.
2010Katha, Screenplay, Direction - AppalrajuTeluguShooting.


As writer

YearFilm
1989Shiva
1990Kshana Kshanam
1992Antham / Drohi
1992Raathri / Raat
1993Gaayam / Desam
1993Govinda Govinda
1994Thiruda Thiruda
1995Rangeela
1996Deyyam
1997Daud
1999Shool
2006Shock
2006Darna Zaroori Hai
2007Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag
2008Sarkar Raj
Posted by ravikanth at 11:14 AM

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