‘Aag’ is born out of respect for ‘Sholay’
Varma’s film Aag, which has made rounds of courts for infringing the rights of the blockbuster “Sholay”, is now ready for release. “I always made films on ideas I like and I believe. I think every filmaker should do this. “Aag is not the copy of Sholay,” Varma says.
“I made “Aag” because I have tremendous respect for Sholay. But, in my film everything is origional and different from Sholay. Be it is its characters, storyline, dialogues or the sequences, he says.
Despite the fact there were lots of problems in making the film and even the title which Varma had opted had to be changed, he managed to complete it. “I believed in this film and I have made it,” he says.
On Aag having only two saleable names Amitabh Bachchan who is playing Babban Singh and Ajay Devgan who is playing Hero, Varma asks, “Tell me how many saleable names I had in my film Satya or even in Company, still these films clicked. So, saleable names are only there to woo the distributors to sell the film. But if your story telling is nice, never mind you have a star or super star in the film, you will get appreciation, he says.
Varma supports the newcomer Prashant Raj. I think this boy who played the character of Raj has done a superb job and I hope his character would be remembered for a long time. Despite the fact that he has shared camera in front of Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgan, still he has effortlessly enacted his role, Varma says.
On Gabbar Singh played by the late Amjad Khan or the character of Babban Singh that is played by Amitabh Bachchan in Aag, he says, Amjad ji had done a nice job and his role was more than excellent.”
But still I feel Amitabh Bachchan as Babban Singh has done great job if you compare it with the tecnology we have in today’s films, make-up and performance. If you ask me as a normal cinema goer who had now watched both films, I would say Bachchan as Babban Singh is good. No other actor could do this role except him.”
Sippy’s Sholay had dialoges like “Kitney aadmi the,” “Yeh haath humka de de thakur” and many others, will Aag would be having the dialogues that would be remembered for a long time? “I think there are a few lines and dialogues in my Aag which too would be remembered for a long long time,” he says.
Most of the people who know Varma believe that he does not bother what box office or critics say about his film, as his recent films like Nishabd fell flat at the box office, but Varma with Aag seems carried away with the box office as he says, Box office is important.
“Some of my films got rave reviews but did not do well at the box office. In cinema a big money is involved from a producer, a distributor, a cinema hall to a cinegoer it is a chain. I have tried my level best to get good responce.”
No filmmaker can ensure in advance that his X or Y film would do well, all what he can do is make a film, rest all depends on the audience. My film is releasing on Aug 31 this month and all what I can say is that let’s hope for the best, he says.
Varma has also completed Sarkar 2 which has three Bachchans including Aishwarya in it, Varma said, it is too early to talk about that.