It is almost impossible to spot any emotion on his face. But his uninterested eyes and gentle uninspiring voice hide a passionate and intense filmmaker obsessed with the business of making films.
After all, he has a factory to run. That is what he calls his production company.
Meet Ram Gopal Varma.
Clad in a trendy white T-shirt, the kind Saif Ali Khan wore in Dil Chahta Hai, Varma is busy on a phone call in his colourful state-of-art office. It is splashed with bright orange and green chairs and its wooden walls display contemporary art.
First, he was fascinated with Sridevi. That prompted him to make a film on a similar subject with Mast. Later, horror (Raat, Bhoot, Darna Mana Hai) and the underworld (Satya, Company), caught his fancy.
Varma is now excited about the latest film in his life: Ab Tak Chhappan.
"Ab Tak Chhappan is loosely based on the encounter cops we keep hearing and reading about all the time," he says. Although he denies that the film is based on Mumbai cop Daya Nayak's personal life, he admits, "We have just taken some information from him during the course of doing research for the film."
"It's more like a spirit. The similarity [between Daya Nayak and the film] would come -- anything based on reality is bound to have certain parallels compared to it.
Nana Patekar essays the role of the encounter specialist. The actor worked with Varma in Bhoot and Darna Mana Hai. Varma says, "The way the character was written it needed an actor of that kind [Nana's kind] of calibre."
Buzz is Nana will soon direct a film for the Varma banner. Varma is reluctant to reveal any more. "Let him [Nana Patekar] tell the story."
The desire to make Ab Tak Chhappan came to him from his knowledge of encounter cops. But portraying reality and fantasy on screen cannot be compared, he insists. "It depends on the nature of the subject. To convert reality into drama is very different art from creating drama and fantasy out of nothing. They are too different. They belong to two different genres."
After E Niwas, Rajat Mukherjee, Prawaal Raman, Chandan Arora and Sriram Raghavan, it is editor-turned-director Shimit Amin's turn to debut in a Varma production.
"I didn't know Shimit before a friend of mine called and said, 'There's this guy Shimit who stays in Los Angeles and he was very impressed with Company. He is an editor. He wants to work with you.' I called him for Bhoot. I was very impressed with the way he cut the scenes in Bhoot, his sensibilities and everything. When Ab Tak Chhappan's script came about, I just took a decision [to cast Amin as director]."
Varma reasons, "The vision of a person -- an outsider -- not living in Mumbai would be very different from mine. If I directed Ab Tak Chhappan, I would be in danger of falling into the clichés of Satya and Company. I thought he would bring in a flavour which is probably not me."
Why would it be a cliché if Varma did it? "It's not a question of a cliché in the subject matter. I am talking about a style -- each of us would think in a different way about creating characters. He would look at it differently. The flavour, I thought, on some level would make it very different."
With a satisfied smile he adds, "I just took a gamble, it passed. He has done a fantastic job."
The secret mantra behind Varma's knack for recognising talent lies in "pure common sense." He says, "If you are sitting in front of a person and his sincerity, intelligence and enthusiasm come across, you just need sense to recognise that." Luckily for the filmmaker, his judgement hasn't failed him so far.
Ab Tak Chhappan is the next cop film to hit the block after Rajkumar Santoshi's Khakee. But Varma isn't worried about audiences getting an overdose of cop films. "I don't think audiences watch film for backdrops. It has an inherent story in itself whether it's put in the underworld or film world or some romantic world, it carries its own," he says.
In that case, why aren't films doing well? January saw a spate of decent releases like Khakee, Ek Hasina Thi and Maqbool. Though critically acclaimed and liked by the general public, neither of these films got their due at the box-office. "First of all, success or failure is related to economics -- what costs it has been made at, what costs have been recovered where. Maybe the theatrical releases are falling, which is a worldwide phenomenon. You can't blame a film for not filling the theatres. You have to maybe restructure the way you have been looking at things. Like releasing the film in fewer theatres or cutting the costs. Or we have to have a clear strategy of understanding trends. It is not necessarily related to people not liking a film," he says.
He adds, "Promotion is extremely important. Promotion is eventually about rousing a desire among the audience to see the film. After they see it, they might not like it. That's not in your control."
A film teaser should "generate the excitement and curiosity that, 'I would love to watch this film'."
Varma announced his multi-starrer Ek featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty and Akshay Kumar with a lot of fanfare. There has been no news on the progress of the film. That is because, "I was caught up doing things for my Factory, so I put it on the backburner," he says and adds, "The scripting of Ek is done. In four-five months, I should start."
Meanwhile, he is also working on his directorial venture Naach with Abhishek Bachchan and Antara Mali. Naach is rumoured to be a remake of Wong Kar-Wai's offbeat film, In The Mood For Love. Varma shrugs it off, saying; "I never ever heard the words In the Mood for Love."
Interestingly Bachchan Jr was scheduled to work with Varma in Bhoot, though it didn't work out.
After Ab Tak Chhappan, and along with Ek and Naach, Verma says, "We will be releasing Vishnu Prasad Gayab Ho Gaya (Tusshar Kapoor, Antara Mali) and Murder at 2 (Anil Kapoor)."
Despite having so many directors and films on the floors, Varma doesn't find it difficult to pay individual attention to every project. "I am not creatively involved with any of those projects. Very able technicians are handling them. My involvement comes at a very minimal level."
Even so, isn't it too taxing? "Not at all, I enjoy it. I love it," he smiles. Ultimately, he admits, "The idea is to release a film every week. All the films that release on Friday should be my films only."
Making multiple films at a time is obviously not a bad idea in this filmmaker's book.
Many directors dream of working with that one actor. But that is not how Varma and his film factory work. "I don't make films to present actors."
Point noted.
