'I want this to be the film of my lifetime' Ram Gopal Varma on his Rs 60 crore international project

He is always working on some project or the other.

Which is just as well, considering the many genres filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma experiments with. He is one of the rare directors in Bollywood who has directed comedy with equal elan as a romance or thriller.

The successful director of Rangeela, Satya and Company has big plans up his sleeve. He spoke to Subhash K Jha about his international project with film financier Bharat Shah:

Tell us about your proposed project with Bharat Shah.

It is a huge Rs 60 crore project with Hollywood and Bollywood actors. It is still in the script stage. Except for Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgan, the cast is yet to be finalised.

The film will be targeted at an international audience; it will be shot in real time and will be bilingual --- the Indian characters will speak in Hindi; the Western characters in English. The Hindi and English dialogues will have subtitles in reverse to ensure optimum reach.

How did you decide on this project?

I have had this idea in my mind for a couple of years, but was scared of the cost involved. It is too big to be made only in Hindi. It is a film about military intelligence with elements of war, terrorism and the workings of RAW [Research and Analysis Wing], in the plot.

I will have to shoot 70 per cent of the film in India. The rest will be shot in four, five countries, including the US, Egypt and Pakistan. I have always made films within a given budget and time frame. But this project requires a panoramic sweep and vision.

When did you decide to make this film?

For the last eight months, this project has become an obsession. When Devdas succeeded in spite of its daunting budget [Rs 500 million], I was further encouraged. I approached Bharat Shah and said it will not be a small-budget film like my Jungle or Mast. I warned him it would be much more expensive than Devdas.

He said, "Let us go ahead. Don't worry about the budget. I am ready to put money in it."

Once he agreed, I went to Los Angeles to look at actors and the technical crew. Bharat Shah will collaborate with Raju Patel [ who also produced Kaante] for this project. Everyone has tremendous confidence in my idea.

I want this to be the film of my lifetime. A filmmaker doesn't get a chance like this every day. The budget is not an issue because the film is being targeted at an international audience. After the script is ready, preproduction will take five, six months. Once we start shooting, it will be done at one go. The whole film will be shot with Hollywood technicians.

Will it overlap with your other directorial venture Bhoot?

No, Bhoot will be over in January and releases in April. I start Bharat Shah's project in June-July. I now have to fix the characters before casting actors.

Doesn't this kind of a budget daunt you?

Why? Didn't Devdas work? We need to excite the audience with grandeur and spectacle. We have to create the kind of visuals that would encourage audiences to go to theatres. A major part of the budget would go into creating realism, not fantasy.

In that sense, my film will be like Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. There will be nothing cinematic about it.

Will there be any songs in the film?

The music will be in the background. To expect songs in this film would be as silly as expecting songs in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. Themes dictate songs. I keep forgetting out of greed for the audio sales and satellite air time.

In Road, songs were a problem. In fitting the songs, I started manipulating the scenes. In Bhoot, I want the audience to get scared. So I will not give them Nadeem-Shravan's melodies. I will go by my beliefs, even if they turn out to be crap.

Basically, a film gets a good opening with dialogue promos, not songs. Now, when the music industry has collapsed, why should I waste so much money on recording and filming songs? I will not do that even if the music industry revives.

When a film like Rangeela, comes along I would happily include songs. I am producing a film called Main Madhuri Dixit Ban-na Chahti Hoon. That will have music and songs.

The title is intriguing...

Yes, I must tell you how I met the writer Vicky. One day I saw a guy with a tattered file outside my office. I had an appointment at the time that was postponed. So I used this guy to fill that hour by listening to his story.

The minute he told me the title Main Madhuri Dixit Ban-na Chahti Hoon I was hooked. I went through the whole script. In my entire life, I had not read a script that made me laugh, cry and go through the entire gamut of emotions. Every idea for a film produced by me comes from me. This is the first film conceived and written by an outsider.

What is it about?

It is about a nautanki dancer played by Antara Mali who comes to Mumbai and become a film star. She comes to the city of dreams with a man who is besotted by her. She knows nothing about Mumbai except what she has seen in the movies.

What fascinated me was the theme of the common man's perceptions of Mumbai and how s/he comes to terms with reality. It is an incredible script. I wanted to cast a simple-looking girl and man.

That is how Antara and Rajpal Yadav came into the picture. My editor Chandan Arora, who has been refusing to direct projects I offered him earlier, grabbed the chance to direct Main Madhuri Dixit. A new composer Anil Mohile will score the music. Manmohan Shetty's Entertainment 1 will collaborate with me for this film.

What else will Ram Gopal Varma Productions be busy with in 2003?

I am producing a film for my assistant Prabal Pandey called Darna Manaa Hai. It is like Tales Of The Dark Side. It would be a Gumnaam with bunch of kids who pass time in the woods telling horror stories.

The stories being recounted would add to the main plot. It is a feel good suspense story. Bhoot is more grim and scary. Darna Manaa Hai is more like I Know What You Did Last Summer. You could call it a popcorn horror flick. Bhoot is meant to scare even a 90-year old man.

Darna Manaa Hai stars Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Fardeen Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Aftab Shivdasani, Sohail Khan, Urmila Matondkar, Isha Koppikar, Antara Mali. Have I left out anyone (laughs)? All my so-called blue-eyed boys and girls (laughs again).

The short story format with a 20-minute episodic structure dictated the large cast. These actors would never have had the chance to play such crisp and short characters.

What about your other tie-up with 20th Century Fox?

Ek Haseena Thi is about 50 per cent complete. It is the best film of Urmila Matondkar's career. Sridhar Raghavan is directing it. An international company like 20th Century Fox would not settle for a project which doesn't have a skilled director.