Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma speaks to Mid-Day about being a diehard Sridevi fan and how he "hated Boney Kapoor forbringing that angel from heavendown to being just an ordinary housewife." Here's what he said about the actress: My journey to the real Sridevi from being just an obsessively die-hard fan of hers started when I was preparing for mydebut film Shiva. I used to walk from Nagarjuna's office in Chennai to a neighboring street where Sridevi used to live and I used to just stand and watchSridevi's house from outside her gate. I just couldn't believe that the goddess of beauty lived in that stupid looking house. I saystupid because I believed that no manmade house deserves to house that beauty called SRIDEVI. And then after Shiva became a big hit, to my utter disbelief a producer took me to meet her at that very same house where I used to stand outside the gate. It was at night and as luck would have it, there was a power cut in her house. I was sitting in her living room in candlelight waiting for the angel to appear and my heart was thumping like mad. Her mother told us she was busy packing, as she was about to catch a flight to go to Mumbai. As I waited, every once in a while Sridevi was rapidly crossing the living room as she was moving from one room to another room in a rush to finish her packing, even as she apologetically smiled at me for the delay. Finally she came and said a matter-of-fact few lines that she would very much like to work with me, and then she left for Mumbai. I wrote Kshana Kshanam, my Telugu film, as a love letter written to her by me with my
camera. In the making of the film, I started discovering her as a person and I realised that she has an invisible wall around her and she does not let anyone cross that. Also during the course of working with her I began to understand more and more as a director about the nuances of performances and characterizations. Also through her style I realised that cinematic acting is many times more complex than the so-called method acting.Her popularity had to be seen to
be believed. When we were
shooting in a Nandyal, there used
to be a crowd of more than
20,000 people the whole night
around the bungalow where she
was staying. The crowd just
stared at it while she was
sleeping in the morning. We used
to know that she is coming to
the location because of the huge
column of dust coming towards
us that was caused by the
thousands of people running
behind her car.
I finished Kshana Kshanam and
in due course I have seen her
going through a lot of personal
tragedies like her father's death
and her mother's mental illness.
Suddenly the woman whose
company everyone desired was
left all alone in the world, till
Boney Kapoor stepped into her
life and married her. I was one of
the few million men in the
country who wanted to kill
Boney out of sheer jealousy.
Straight from her super stardom
and magazine covers, I saw her
in Boney Kapoor's house, serving
tea like an ordinary housewife. I
hated Boney Kapoor for bringing
that angel from heaven down to
being just an ordinary
housewife. I stopped going to
their house because I couldn't
bear to see Sridevi in a realistic
setting.
So what if Boney Kapoor has the
real Sridevi in his house? I have
her captured in the form of a
cinematic goddess in the temple
of my mind camera and also as a
divine angel in the heart of my
celluloid dreams. I thank God for
creating Sridevi and I thank Louis
Lumiere for creating the movie
camera to capture and contain
her beauty forever. I thank Balki
and Gauri for bringing her back
in such a befitting and wonderful
film.
source - MIDDAY
Crazy Varma.....
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