Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma is all set to launch martial artist Pooja Bhalekar in his upcoming directorial venture, Ladki Dragon Girl. The Free Press Journal caught up with him for an exclusive tête-à-tête.
When asked what he feels about the changing narratives and audiences, he shares, “I believe, any change has partly to do with technology and partly how a filmmaker is breaking the norm. It’s a combination of both. No one can really tell a particular formula for a film to work. The films down south are working currently because they have an old-school charm to them. The best example is The Kashmir Files. No one thought that it would do so well at the box office. There’s always a surprise element involved in cinema. Evolution comes from stories, characters, etc.”
Elaborating further, he adds, “My film Ladki Dragon Girl is like Bruce Lee meets Enter the Dragon. The content is not the talking point of the film, but Bruce Lee is. I have treated this action film very differently. Like how Bruce Lee’s body is the central focus and not his action, I wanted to do it in the context of a woman.”
When asked how he found Pooja and cast her as the lead, he reveals, “An actor should not be camera conscious and know how to emote through eyes, I found these two qualities in Pooja, and I cast her for the role.”
RGV is heavily trolled on social media. When questioned regarding the same, he avers, “I use social media to talk about the issues I am interested in. I don’t have time to see the trolls, so I don’t pay any attention to them. I also feel most of the time, people don’t get what I say, and they tend to misunderstand me. I am okay with the criticism. I am always the first one to even apologise if I am wrong.”
On a parting note, he says that he doesn’t want to remake any of his cults from the 90s. “Taking a franchise ahead is a better idea. Ladki 2 is very much on the cards, but I don’t want to remake any film from the 90s since, for a film, the actor, subject and timing matter. For example, if I’ll try to recreate Rangeela, it will badly fail. Back in 1995, Urmila Matondkar and A R Rahman were certain new highlights; hence it worked,” he concludes.
