Ram Gopal Varma
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Ram Gopal Varma | |
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Born | April 7, 1962 Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India |
Occupation | film director, producer and writer |
Ram Gopal Varma, (Telugu: రామ్ గొపాల్ వర్మ , Hindi: राम गोपाल वर्मा) born April 7, 1962, is a Filmfare Award-winning Telugu Indian film director, writer and producer.
Varma has directed, written and produced movies across multiple genres - psychological thrillers, underworld gang warfare, politician-criminal nexus and musicals; and multiple languages - Telugu and Hindi. Some of his best works include Rangeela, Satya, Bhoot, Company, Sarkar and Shiva. While not all of his movies succeed (Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, based on the Bollywood classic Sholay, being the biggest failure as of 2008), he has a history of bouncing back when he has been all but written off.
Some of today's finest directors, script writers, composers and actors have at some point or the other worked with Varma. Most were either discovered by him or introduced to a wider audience by him. Manoj Bajpai, A.R.Rahman, Anurag Kashyap, Jaideep Sahni and Madhur Bhandarkar are good examples.[1]
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[edit] Early years
Varma was born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh to Krishnam Raju and Suryamma. Although he did attend school and even took up civil engineering at the V.R.Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijayawada, he soon dropped out and started a video rental parlor, all because of his craze for films.[2] He and his uncle would often miss classes and instead head straight to the local cinema halls to watch American and Indian cinema. Even in school, he was a bad student and would bunk classes regularly. He had no objectives as such, but was very interested in people and their behavior, particularly the bullies in his class. All these factors contributed to his interest in films and film making. When he did decide to take the leap and become a director, he did not get any support from his family. But that did not stop him.[3].
[edit] Career - Beginnings
Varma started his film career in the Hyderabad film industry as production assistant for the films Raogarillu and Collectorgari Abbai.[citation needed]
The moment he was waiting for came when he met Telugu superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna on the sets of a film. Varma managed to narrate a scene to the actor which impressed him so much that Varma's dream of becoming a director came true.[4] 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.[5]
His next film was Kshana Kshanam, another Telugu blockbuster. Then came a lean patch, with films such as Raatri (Raat in Hindi), Antham and Drohi. Things picked up with Gaayam. Govinda Govinda and Deyyam were among the last of his Telugu films as director because he was becoming unsuccessful and needed a new industry in Bollywood. Varma started his own production company, Varma Corporation Limited, to produce his films and while he worked in Bollywood, the company (which later became the Factory) continued producing Telugu films such as Money, Money Money, Gulabi and Wife of Mr. Vara Prasad.
[edit] Career - Bollywood
While Varma's first successful Hindi film was the remake of Shiva, 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.
His next film Daud sank without a trace.[5]
Then came his masterpiece, the critically acclaimed Satya, a film based on the Bombay underworld. A script written by Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla, music by Vishal Bharadwaj and Sandeep Chowta, a power house performance by Manoj Bajpai as Bhiku Mhatre and Varma's technical brilliance contributed to a film that was a landmark. The film earned Varma his first and only Filmfare Award - for Best Movie (Critics).
His most successful movie is Company, again set against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld, in which he cut out song and dance sequences commonplace in Bollywood films. His next film as director was Sarkar and released in June 2005, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan played the character of Sarkar who is a self righteous and powerful politician. Sarkar went on to become a critically acclaimed box office hit.
His most recent release, Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag was a critical and financial failure. Ram Gopal Varma's next release is Sarkar Raj which is the sequel to Sarkar. The film will release on June 6, 2008.[6].
[edit] Filmography (Hindi)
[edit] As director
- Shiva (1989)
- Drohi (1992)
- Raat (1992)
- Rangeela (1995)
- Daud (1997)
- Satya (1998)
- Kaun (1999)
- Mast (1999)
- Jungle (2000)
- Company (2002)
- Bhoot (2003)
- Naach (2004)
- Sarkar (2005)
- Shiva (2006)
- Darna Zaroori Hai (2006)
- Nishabd (2007)
- Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007)
- Darling (2007)
- Sarkar Raj (2008)
- Contract (2008)
- PHOONK -The Black Magic story (2008)
[edit] Awards and nominations
Ram Gopal Varma has won the Nandi award (Awards given by Government of Andhra Pradesh yearly) for Best Director forthly for 'Shiva', 'Kshana kshanam' and 'Prema Katha'.
He also has won Best Director (in Bollywood) four times for Satya, Jungle, Company and Bhoot.
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- ^ What's wrong with Ramu?
- ^ 'A filmmaker is like a journalist'
- ^ | 'I need to change my approach to films'
- ^ My best film is 'Bhoot'
- ^ a b All you need to know about Ram Gopal Varma and 'Company'
- ^ "Sarkar Raaj is not being re-shot" . - Ram Gopal Varma