New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

Ram Gopal Varma’s judgment day is round the corner. His much debated and controversial remake of cult Hindi movie Sholay is hitting the theatres on Friday.

Much water has flown down the bridge since Ram Gopal Varma first shocked the movie world with his decision to remake the bible of Hindi cinema, Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay .

Although Ramu faced downright criticism from many people – from Ramesh Sippy to Jaya Bachchan , Dharmendra and Hema Malini – Ramu had Amitabh Bachchan on his side. Then there was a legal battle between Ramu and Sascha Sippy over the film’s copyright issue. Ramu lost the battle and omitted the word Sholay from the movie’s title and changed the characters’ names (from Veeru to Heero and Gabbar to Babban).

As the film is ready to release on August 31, here are some interesting tidbits about Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag .

CAST RESHUFFLE

In the beginning, Ramu thought of signing Abhishek Bachchan for the role of the jocular Heero in the film. But there was a problem. He had already decided to cast Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar Singh. And he could not envisage Abhishek fighting with Big B in the movie’s climax.

After dismissing Abhishek, Ramu then approached Saif Ali Khan with the offer to play Heero. But Saif did not have the dates to spare. Eventually Ajay Devgan was roped in for the part.

Initially, Ramu had finalized Mohit Ahlawat to play the silent and brooding Jai. But as the script kept on evolving, Ramu realized that Mohit did not suit the role. In his place, newcomer Prashant Raj was roped in. Even the character’s name was changed from Jai to Raj.

AJAY, NISHA GET STEAMY

Nisha Kothari , Ramu’s blue-eyed gal, plays the role of Ghungru, an autorickshaw driver. Nisha, who is paired with Ajay, shot a very sensuous number Chhaa Raha with the actor. Quite interestingly, the song has more skin show by Devgan than by Nisha. Ramu shot the song in a very novel way.

“It’s one of the most arresting songs of my career. I have tried to capture different images with each image creating a different emotion,” says Ramu about the song.

THE RAJNIKANT ANGLE

The movie also has a Rajnikant angle. Nisha’s character Ghungru is shown as a big fan of Rajnikant. She has a big poster of the superstar inside her autorickshaw and she even imitates Rajnikant’s style of action and physical movements. Incidentally, in real life, too, Nisha is a huge fan of Rajnikant.

WHEN MOHANLAL DANCED

South superstar Mohanlal plays the role of Narsimha (akin to Thakur). Instead of his hands, Babban Singh only cuts his fingers in the film. There is another thing different in Ramu’s film. There is a song in which Narsimha is shown drinking bhang and then dancing.

However, Mohanlal is not really known for his dancing skills. Choreographer Shabeena Khan worked out some real Indian dance steps for him. After initial hesitation, Mohanlal did get into the groove and showed his dance skills. Everyone from Shabeena to Ramu was impressed.

The movie also features Sushmita Sen as the widow Durga. Although she doesn’t have many dialogues, there is a muted aggression to her character.

And by the way, Ramu has called ‘RGV Ki Aag’ his “most original work” till date. Quite amusing. Isn’t it?

Both Ram Gopal Varma and Amitabh Bachchan wanted to give a menacing look to Big B’s character Babban Singh in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag .

Ramu’s own interpretation of the cult classic Sholay has a bigger role for Babban Singh than the 1975 movie had of Gabbar Singh. Apart from the length of the role, Ramu and Big B worked together on the look of the character.

The finalized look required Babban Singh to have a scar on his nose and two different coloured lenses in his eyes.

While the scar was easily managed, Big B had to rope in his family eye surgeon Dr Himanshu Mehta to get high quality soft lenses of blue and brown shades.

The blue lens was used in the right eye and the brown lens in the left.

Since Big B is not comfortable with lenses, he had to go to Dr. Mehta for putting on the lenses every time before the shoot. Later, when the lenses were removed, Big B complained of itchiness and rashness in his eyes and used to wear goggles throughout the day.

‘Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag’ releases on August 31.

Shares of Pritish Nandy Communications zoomed nearly 5 per cent to Rs 88 on the company confirming that it has signed a deal with Sholay Media & Entertainment to officially remake Sholay.

The production house will not only remake Sholay, but also do an animated version of the original film, and then a prequel and a sequel. The massive $100-million deal is slated to be one of the biggest agreements in Bollywood.

Sholay is the highest grossing Indian film of all times and has earned over Rs 236.45 crore. Sholay racked up a record 60 golden jubilees across India and doubled its original gross over subsequent reruns.

The company and Sholay Media and Entertainment have agreed to work together to jointly develop the Sholay franchise worldwide. While production on the animation version of Sholay will commence soon, the official remake is scheduled to go into pre-production before the end of the year.

Brace yourself for another remake of the Classic Sholay as the rights of the film has been sold to Pritish Nandy Communications by Sascha Sippy, chairman of Sholay Media and Entertainment.

Source adds, “There were many makers who had been vying for the rights of the film, but PNC finally won the deal. Production on the animated version of Sholay is scheduled to start soon. The cast and crew for the official remake is also being planned and top league directors like Shankar, Priyadarshan and Sanjay Gupta are being considered for this project. After that, the prequel and the sequel will also be made. The $100 million deal was finalized in London today.”

When contacted Sascha Sippy confirmed the news saying, “Sholay is undoubtedly the biggest movie brand that India has had and as custodians of that brand we want to be careful and responsible with it. We have chosen Pritish Nandy Communications as our partners as we like and appreciate their work and approach.”

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.

The wait for Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay turned Aag is now almost over and the man who has been a part of both the original and the remake was there in Mumbai to promote the film on Wednesday.

Big B plays the iconic character of Gabbar in the new age Aag.

“He is such a mercurial character, he is so unpredictable as to what he is going to do next. For an actor it is the entire book of acting put into one chapter called called Gabbar Singh. It is so marvellous,” said Amitabh.

When Ramesh Sippy thought of Sholay, the film world thought it to be an over ambitious project can the same be said about Ram Gopal Varma?

“A certain amount of bravery and guts goes in wanting to pick up something which has already been classified as this is legendary and iconic. And then want to replace it or rather reposition it into a realm, which is contemporary more real but still have the little bit of flavour and essence of the real, I think is very challenging all of us as actors, challenging for a maker, it is for the writers to interpret all that in recent times. So, for us it was a new product and at the back of the mind a bell ringing in our mind that we have seen it earlier,” he said.

Well, Friday is not very far away Ramesh Sippy definitely proved his critics wrong will Ramu now do the same?

Will his take on Sholay, arguably the nation’s most revered film, vindicate him of his recent catastrophes, or will this be the biggest of them all?

The promos of the film are on air, and there is a rational skepticism towards it. I am almost fearful of watching Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, a sentiment only augmented by the narcissistic tone to the title (who prefixes their name to their films?).

So, why are people expecting RGVKA to be a mess, while hoping they are proven wrong? The apprehension is not coming from people indifferent to RGV as a director, but from those who have enjoyed his cinema over the years and are, quite frankly, puzzled by his work over the last few years. His fans (this writer included) who loved the breezy Rangeela, were enamored by Satya, shivered through Kaun and were deeply impressed by Company, enough to watch it over and over, admiring the screenplay once, the acting the next, the dialogues the other, could not understand where films like Naach, Darna Zaroori Hai and Nishabd came from.

Varma named his company `Factory’ and showed us that he believed in mass production putting out one mediocre film after the other – Mr Ya Miss, Gayab, D, and Darwaza Band Rakho, among others. Film-going audiences grew clever over time, learning to differentiate RGV- produced films and therefore expecting less, and RGV-directed ones, where the films continued to be looked forward to with immense anticipation.

So even if these strange films (save some truly interesting, original ones like Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Ek Hasina Thi, Ab Tak Chhappan and My Wife’s Murder) kept coming into the theatres, the audience gave its verdict by refusing to watch them. Varma’s stock was still up as films directed by him were still widely regarded. Surprisingly, 2004’s Naach directed by Varma himself was a flop, and his next hit was a full year later with Sarkar.

His next three films were all inspired and painfully indulgent. Varma decided he wanted to remake his own film Shiva and he did so with Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari. The film bombed. Next was Darna Mana Hai’s sequel of sorts – Darna Zaroori Hai. Same fate. And then came Nishabd (Varma’s interpretation of Lolita) that honestly left everyone confused. Varma wasn’t known to dare-and-duck, but here he chose a provocative subject, only to duck under an armour of preachy dialogue and a bizarre, all’s-well ending, more quickly put together than your 2-minute noodles.

The reason his downward spiral is so important, is that it’s very essential his brand of films survive. After Rangeela, Satya and Company, he became the strong, stoic presence in the industry parallel to the camps that wouldn’t look beyond making opulent dramas. His films became the symbols of interesting, different, smaller cinema that the audience was hungrily developing a taste for.

He’s always been delightfully irreverent but this time he’s taking a truly long step in remaking Sholay. He even wanted to retain the original title (Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay) inviting the ire of the original producers. However, after a messy battle with the Sippys, Varma was forced to change the name, where he promptly changed Sholay with its close synonym – Aag.

RGVKA, is being looked forward to and viewers are desperate to draw delicious comparisons between the original and the remake, with general opinion dangerously skewed in favour of the original. After all it’s interesting to cast Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar but Nisha Kothari as Basanti (here,Ghunguroo) and Sushmita Sen as Radha (renamed Durga) is a stretch and has to be seen to be believed. Plus he’s challenged Helen’s softly sensuous Mehbooba Mehbooba with Urmila’s aggressive look out of the caves.

Varma’s taken a unanimously revered film – a piece of history, really—and has dared to make it his own way. We hate him for his guts and we love him for his guts. What remains to be seen are the sentiments post-Friday.

It started with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’, following which filmmakers are cashing in on previous success mantras by remaking classics. So are they playing spoilt sport? TIMES NOW found three persons who should know best: Zeenat Aman, the ‘oomph’ icon of Bollywood, Helen, the first ‘item girl’ in the true sense of the term - and Waheeda Rehman the epitome of classic Indian beauty.

They shared a common past of fame and success. Fast forward to the present, and these beauties are ready to share something more. No, they won’t be seen sharing screen space - but their films are getting a makeover.

First up, it was ‘Don’ with Priyanka Chopra stepping into Zeenat’s shoes to recreate the aura of Roma, and now it’s the turn of ‘Qurbani’ and Mallika Sherawat, who will do a Zeenat in the chartbuster ‘Laila Main Laila’. And looks like Zeenat is in tune with the changing times.

“I think that it’s just a question of old wine in new bottles - just taking what was there, what worked, and introducing it to another generation,” she said.

Helen, too, had her share of remixes with ‘Mehbooba mehbooba’ being remade not once, but twice this year  - but neither Mallika nor Urmila were able to match the steps of the original and the legendary Mehbooba girl. Helen however doesn’t care for the details.

“Everybody in the audience, the public are enjoying it. You just have to enjoy things and be happy and everybody’s being happy about the whole thing,” she said.

Next in line is Waheeda Rehman’s ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ and ‘Howrah Bridge’ - Pritish Nandy will try and recreate the magic of the classics which he claims will be a “tribute” - but this beauty feels that classics should be left untouched.

“There are certain movies that you should not touch… let them be as they are,” said Waheeda.

Well, maybe for film directors it will be old wine in new bottle - but the debate on whether it’s a tribute or another way to spell success rages on.

Thou shall not remake ‘Sholay’ seemed to be almost a commandment of the Sippy family — one which Ram Gopal Varma is rather familiar with. But with the release of ‘RGV ki Aag ‘just a day away, it looks like Sascha Sippy has found another way to rub in the fact that the ‘real Sholay’ remake is yet to hit the screen.

Sascha Sippy got into a deal which has the whole of Bollywood talking. Sascha has sold the rights for Sholay to Pritish Nandy Communications for a whopping 100 million dollars. According to Sascha, the magnum opus of his family’s creative stature deserves someone better than RGV.

“Sholay deserves someone who can respect its scale and magnificence. Pritish Nandy does,” claims Sasha. Of course, a not so subtle way of saying that Ramu doesn’t have what it takes.

We for one were pretty surprised that Sascha Sippy thought Pritish Nandy Communications had what it takes, considering that they’ve only had a ‘Jhankaar Beats’ and ‘Pyar Ke Side Effects’ to rave about. However, when we tried contacting the other members of the Sippy family for their comments on the deal, they were pretty mum on the issue and chose the most convenient stance, “No comments.”

But looks like in the middle of all the brickbats, even Ramu has started to show some signs of insecurity. “I hope I haven’t messed up the film,” said the maverick filmmaker in a recent interview, almost admitting his apprehension.

But considering what we’ve seen of the promos and the rather dark and almost crass way in which the film is shot, we have to say that we think that Ramu has every reason to be worried. And it’s definitely not because PNC may do a better job, but because we think the filmmaker is capable of a lot more, if we forget about his last few box office disasters that is.

Even as fans await the release of Ram Gopal Verma’s version of the 1975 blockbuster, the original makers of the film have given the official remake rights to Pritish Nandy.

If Gabbar Singh were to ask how many people are remaking Sholay in various avatars the answer would be difficult.

Finally one of India’s most loved films will have an official and a $110 million remake.

It is a figure that not only Rampur’s villagers in Sholay but Bollywood itself would have never dreamt of.

The deal to remake Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay was signed between Sasha Sippy, Chairman of Sholay Media and Entertainment, the official rights holders in London three days.

“Sholay is a huge cult movie it’s big because its not just one film but four films,” said Pritish Nandy, Managing Director, Pritish Nandy Communications.

Controversial remake

The remaking of Sholay has always been controversial dividing the Sippy family that made the film.

Ramesh Sippy who directed the original has maintained it’s not possible to remake it.

But Sasha Sippy, the grandson of Sholay producer GP Sippy managed to get his grandfather to give him the rights.

This also meant that Ram Gopal Varma who set out to remake the film with its original name his fingers burned.

He will also make an animated version of Sholay. The first movie could hit the screens by next year.

Nandy has signed a 110 million dollar deal to remake Sholay and two sequels.