
Love at least will sometimes give you good sex but hate gives nothing: RGV Love at least will sometimes give you good sex but hate gives nothing: Ram Gopal Verma
Ramu has revealed how one of his worst films ever, lead him to make his career’s undoubtedly two best films.
In his last blog update he had advised his hate club about love and hate stating, “I feel it’s truly wasteful to expend one’s energy in hating someone.
Love at least will sometimes give you good sex whereas hate will give you nothing.” Now in his latest blog has shared the unusual journey that lead him to his two masterpieces.
Ramu states, “When somebody asked me to name the worst film I made, I said it’s “Drohi”.
That’s because only I know my state of mind and how I went about making that film. But inadvertently “Drohi” became responsible for two of the best films of my career and probably my standing in the industry today.
I came to Mumbai to sign Madhuri Dixit for “Drohi”. Her secretary told me her dates are not available for 6 months. Boney Kapoor suggested that there is this new girl called Urmila who has done a film called “Narasimha”.
When I saw the film I didn’t think much of her but as I was in hurry because of Nagarjuna’s impending dates and no one else available, I signed her. The film failed and she was written about negatively too.
In the course of making “Drohi” me and Mani Ratnam together wrote a script called “Gayam” in which for a supporting role Mani suggested Urmila. That’s not because he thought much of her either but just that she might be ok for the role.
Now while shooting for “Gaayam” when Urmila did a certain dance movement I just got so mesmerized that I got inspired to make “Rangeela”.
I was very impressed with this story of a James Hadley Chase novel where a gangster falls in love with a girl and the girl does not know that he is a gangster. By the time he wants to get out it’s too late and he dies. I made this story into “Drohi” and when it failed I changed the setting and backdrop and years later remade it as “Satya”.
So in effect “Drohi” caused both “Rangeela” and “Satya” to happen. If I didn’t meet Urmila, I would not have made “Rangeela” and if “Drohi” worked I wouldn’t have made “Satya”.
So if today my standing in the industry is substantially due to “Rangeela” and “Satya”, only I know how much my mind state of “Drohi” contributed to it. So any outsider who would have thought I phoonkd “Drohi” he would not realize how much I got out of the same film elsewhere.
Similarly when I came to Mumbai to show Sanjay Dutt “Gaayam” he was very keen to get it made in Hindi which was titled “Nayak”. I also had “Rangeela” project with me.
My funders were not keen on “Rangeela” but were gung-ho on “Nayak”, the reason being Sanjay Dutt at that time was a much bigger star than Aamir.
Since I was insistent on doing both films they reluctantly agreed to fund both films thinking “Nayak” will cover “Rangeela’s” lossess. After shooting for 15 days for “Nayak” Sanjay got arrested in the blast case and was in jail for a long time.
Meanwhile “Rangeela” got completed and became a blockbuster. Also in the same waiting period I did a Telugu film called “Anaganaga Oka Roju” which became a super hit.
So by the time Sanjay came out I felt instead of making a serious dark film like “Nayak” let me scrap “Nayak” and make a caper film like “Anaganaga Oka Roju” and ended up making “Daud”. Years later I remade “Nayak” as “Sarkar”.
So in effect what I started out to make what triggered me off at each point of time, what excited me at any given moment results in variously different good, bad, ugly films but only I know in my heart what resulted from where.
Purely based on that knowledge, I have no regrets about a single decision I ever made because as long as you keep making decisions something or the other will keep happening.
This is because decisions will create energy and work and whether they turn out to be good or bad cannot be judged necessarily in reference to any specific time or event. The point is that a life’s momentum is in an ability to make decisions and I take great pleasure in doing that.”
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Comment by jayshah on 3 September 2008:
Sanju as Munna would have been great too…
Comment by neelu on 3 September 2008:
I thought Rangeela was not a big success at the BO. BOI lists it a semi-hit. I realize its iconic status, but why does Ramu call it a blockbuster?
Comment by sv on 3 September 2008:
Urmila was ram gopal verma’s mistress for many years.it is due to that he made many films with her.But beyond a certain point of time she was also not needed.He began making films with other actresses.
Comment by utkal on 3 September 2008:
Rangeela was a big hit. It created a havoc in mImbai when it was released. The BoI status, if it says semi-hit is highly suspect.
Comment by utkal on 3 September 2008:
In IBOS it is listed as the 25th grosser of 19909s ahead of baazigar and Mohra. Link: http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/topgrossersbyyear.asp?year=199
In BoI, it is not even listed among the top 50 in the 1990s. So that’s not credible. Link: http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=126&catName=MTk5MC0xOTk5&PHPSESSID=0856c7d941ef7a30fc258942c62041a2
Comment by neelu on 3 September 2008:
Mumbai is not India - ‘havoc’ in Mumbai means nothing to all India BO. Why would one accept IBOS numbers over BOI? The fact that it is not blockbuster anywhere calls into question RGV’s statement about the film.
Comment by utkal on 3 September 2008:
There is no hard and fast rule of what is a blockbuster, is there? And are you trying to tell me that films like Krantiveer and Mann are among the biggest grossers of 90’s and not Rangeela. The fact is none of the box office status is reliable. So there is nothing wrong with equating the film’s cult status with blockbuster tag. If you can believe BoI, why cant I belive IBOS, or for that the public perception?