New Sholay - Ram Gopal Varma

“The release of my film was synonymous to a ‘mela’ out there and everyone seemed to be joining in the celebrations”, says Ram Gopal Varma whose Aag may have been doused in one week flat but the heat has continued to stayed on.

“It appeared as if festivities were on and anyone and everyone had something to dance and cheer about. People were having fun at my film’s expense which ultimately did succeed in providing them entertainment”, he laughs with his characteristic sarcastic humor.

Does he feel that the film was rejected as a result of an emotional outburst from those who still haven’t forgotten ‘Sholay’? Or was it the herd effect?

Getting serious for the first time Ramu reacts promptly, “It was a herd effect for sure. The film was barely on and obituaries were already written. Also, the all around negative reviews clearly indicated that so many critics were just in love with their own phrases and headlines. They did come up with some real clever quotes that made for an amusing read. We do have some really creative people out there, you know!”

It is hard for Ramu to stay on to be pensive for long as he jumps on to narrate an anecdote. “I remember when I was in class 7th or 8th; me and my friend were returning from school when we saw a man being beaten black and blue by public. They were hurling stones at him and my friend too went ahead and gave him a punch and a kick.

On his return I asked him why he did that. It so turned out that the man was a pickpocket and he had been caught. Since everyone was bashing him up, my friend too confessed to possessing super-strength as he joined the mob. After Aag I can relate to that poor man”, he laughs.

There was never a shred of doubt that Aag would have been minutely scrutinized. But did Ramu anticipate such hostile reactions with an all around audience back lashing?

“If I knew that, I would have never made the film in the first place”, reflects Ramu whose Darling has just hit the marquee, “If you believe in advance that your film won’t be appreciated, why would you bother about bringing it on celluloid? Nevertheless I agree that everyone has a perspective and a right to view an opinion. When reactions are same from everywhere, I may or may not agree with them as a film maker but I have to acknowledge that as a sane person. Can I do anything about that now? No, but I can move on, right?”

He has moved on for sure with Darling recently seeing a release. “As per my knowledge, the film is pretty original”, he smiles, “It is a unique storytelling here with the narrative from the lead protagonist’s (Fardeen Khan) point of view. The technique of shot taking and movements come from Fardeen’s mindset. This is why situations alternate between being scary, comic, fearsome, humorous, romantic, thrilling and then back to comic at regular intervals. It may all sound gimmicky, but then you have to get into the protagonist’s shoes to understand the situations.”

Well, it isn’t exactly gimmicky as one realizes this after watching the film. Darling does present Fardeen in a new light and showcases one of his best performances till date. “Yes, people do tell me that Fardeen has come up with his career best performance. Why just Fardeen? Even Esha has got an all around acclaim for her act in the film.”

How much was his contribution in making them act the way they did? Did he enact the scenes for them and just asked them to follow suit? “No, I rarely tall an actor how to perform”, says Ramu promptly, “I primarily explain the mindset of a character to them and then leave it on my actors to do the rest. There is no point forcing my views on an actor, you see.”

Technically too, Darling comes across as a vintage Ramu product with jump cuts et al, something that he used quite effectively in Company.

Laughs the film maker, “But then you can’t have technique going beyond a character. Yes, there are constant jump-cuts in the narrative to reflect the mindset of a viewer who is going through a constant mental tussle. However, you have to ensure as a film maker that after making a point, you need to put a full stop. A few moments more than what is actually required and as an audience, you would only end up wondering about the very need of a particular shot.”

RGV ki aag has turned out to be quite a dud at the box office.The critics and public alike have lashed out at RGV ki aag.

The box office has shown not even a luke warm response to Ram Gopal Verma’s remake of the cult classic Sholay, and the filmmaker is now saying he was foolish to have even attempted it.

When queried about how he had attempted a rather brave remake, the maverick director Ram Gopal Varma,unabashedly quipped,”Ive been rather foolish in the words of Ramesh Sippy.Thats correct.”

RGV admitted that last week after the release of the classic remake,’RGV Ki Aag’, he received many comments in the alst week than he had probably ever received.He face the media and the critics that disparaged him with a straight face since he had asked for it.

He concurs with Ramesh Sippy’s criticism of his remake. In RGV’s words,he was foolish to attempt a remake of the Sholay classic.If he had the confidence, the arrogance ,stupidity or the madness in Ramesh Sippy’s words to actually go and attempt an adaptation of a classic like Sholay, he had no choice other than facing the repurcussions.

He attributed his motivation to remake the film, RGV Ki Aag to his respect and love for the film.Despite the film’s abysmal faring at the box office, RGV believes that he understands the film better than anybody else but he also accepted that undertsanding a film doesn’t necessarily mean one can make a film as effectively as the original one.

RGV though does not sound resigned. He does not dismiss the possibility of him attempting a remake of a classic in future. He affirms that RGV Ki Aag’s fate has a lot more to it than the remake.HE believes that film was mired in issues like a court case with refernce to the name change, character change.He prefers though to introspect in terms of his motivation to remake Sholay - to delve into whether Sholay remains in his mind in the form of moments or  reminiscences of the dialogues or whether he emotionally relished it but RGV’s probe as he claims remains unresolved.

ONE of the most hyped movies to come out of the Bollywood factory has bombed at the box-office, causing everyone to wonder if remakes are a good idea at all.

The magic of the epic revenge drama of the mid-70s Sholay was hard to replicate. But celebrated filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma was determined to pay tribute to Ramesh Sippy’s celluloid gold.

His Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, released in a blaze of high-octane PR build-up neither had Sholay (embers) nor, of course, Aag (inferno). It was such a damp squib that many theatres dumped it mid-week, choosing to screen other low-budget winners instead.

Varma, a prolific filmmaker with a decent record of gangster films – remember Company, Satya, Sarkar, and that super-duper romantic Aamir Khan- Urmila Matondkar hit Rangeela? – spared no expense on the remake of the 1975 classic.

He hired Amitabh Bachchan and assembled a cast of old and brand-new actors to rehash the most bone-chilling story of revenge ever told on the big screen.

Ramu, as he is known in the film world, is a self-confessed fan of Sholay, having seen the film 35 times since he first saw it as a mere schoolboy.

In his umpteenth print and television interview before the release of Aag on the last Friday of last month, Varma showered praise on Sholay: “I am the biggest fan of the original film.

“I love Ramesh Sippy (producer-director of Sholay). His work has been my source of inspiration. Sholay is way better than my film. I am not competing.”

For close to two years, he had ensured that his remake of Bollywood’s most successful film yet remained in the news.

If it was not that Bachchan, who had played alongside Dharmendra as the roguish hero-duo in the original would now play the legendary villain Gabbar Singh, made famous by the late Amjad Khan, Varma had other ways to tickle the curiosity of a film-crazy nation.

One week the media reported that Ajay Devan would essay the role of Dharmendra in the original. Now, who can forget Dharmendra’s character Veeru in Sholay threatening to commit ’soocide’ by jumping from atop the village tank if he could not get Hema Malini, the heroine playing the role of Basanti, the horse-cart driver (tongawalli), to marry him.

Indeed, Dharmendra won the last parliamentary poll in 2004 by obliging his constituents who invariably asked him to re-enact the “soocide” scene on the campaign trail.

If all else failed, the legal hassles that came in the way of Varma kept his under-production film in the news. Because he had originally named his film Sholay II, the family of the late Ramesh Sippy dragged Varma to court.

After a protracted legal battle, Varma was denied the right to use Sholay.

Having kept the film in news for long, a couple of months before it was due for release, Varma named it Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. His ego seemed to have got the better of his judgment.

And that ego was smashed to pieces by cine-goers. The uniform verdict of filmgoers and critics is overwhelmingly negative.

Wrote Nikhat Kazmi, easily one the more discerning film critics, about Varma’s latest offering: “Nothing seems to work for the film.

“Neither the new setting where Ramgarh becomes Kaliganj, a seaside suburb of Mumbai where real estate prices are rocketing and spurring crime, nor the quintessential revenge plot where an ex-cop (Mohanlal) hires two goons (Heero and Raj, instead of Veeru and Jai in the original) to settle scores with the evil gangster (Babban instead of Gabbar) who has created a reign of terror in the impoverished township.

“Surprisingly, even Amitabh Bachchan fails to live up to the grandeur of Amjad Khan’s tobacco-chewing Gabbar Singh. Of course he tries hard to lend the character a new menace, but all that shaky tongue-twisting, the tubercular cough and the onion breath storm fail to stand up to the simple majesty of the ’70s dacoit.”

Every other critic too has panned the film. As did the ordinary cine-goers who in spite of the hype surrounding the film chose to stay away from cinema halls showing one of the more expensive films of recent years.

Admittedly, remakes haven’t met with approval at the box-office.

Whether it was Shah Rukh Khan’s Don or Aishwarya Rai’s Umrao Jaan, they did not quite set the cash registers ringing with their replication of the roles sensitively essayed by Bachchan and Rekha, respectively, in these films more than two decades ago.

Varma seems to have gone incommunicado, not available for comment on his box-office dud.

Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag has bombed at the box office, but that hasn’t deterred Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan from wanting to work again with the director.

“Yes, he [Varma] wants to do Time Machine with Abhishek and me. I’m comfortable working with Ramu. So why not another film? I haven’t done a sci-fi before,” Amitabh said.

And he also defends the director’s take of the 1975 classic Sholay.

“I don’t know why so much is being made out this. That someone decided to remake it [Sholay] is a great compliment to the original. Nobody questions filmmakers who do so many varied interpretations of Shakespeare’s Othello, Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet. When Vishal Bharadwaj makes Maqbool or Omkara he’s praised for how well he has adapted Shakespeare. Baz Luhrmann has done a very contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet. Then why not Ramu for re-interpreting Sholay.”

On the personal front he is happy to have Aishwarya as his daughter-in-law, but says that nobody can take his daughter Shweta’s place.

“No one can take Shweta’s place in my life. She’s my daughter. But, yes, my bahu is like another daughter in the house,” said Amitabh.

Excerpts from the interview:

You’re a month away from your 65th birthday. How do you look back on the year?

Well, I think every year has its positives and negatives. It started with my son announcing his decision to get married. Then I got the Legion of Honour from the French government, then the marriage [of Abhishek], and Aishwarya as the bahu in the house. Now the National award for Black and another doctorate from Leeds University… such wonderful things happening.

We won’t discuss the bad things.

Why not? They’re the flip side of the good and therefore essential. I don’t look at the lows as bad things. They’re a part of life. Yes, there has been political victimisation, court cases and so on.

What is it like to have a daughter-in-law in the house?

It’s fantastic! I feel I’ve got back my daughter in the house.

Has Aishwarya in some ways taken Shweta’s place in your life?

No one can take Shweta’s place in my life. She’s my daughter. But, yes, my bahu is like another daughter in the house. We’re all extremely happy. And I hope she’s happy too.

Did it feel different working with Aishwarya after the marriage in Sarkar Raj?

Not at all! We were all playing roles when the camera was switched on. Once it was off we were a family again.

Ram Gopal Varma keeps threatening us with several projects featuring you and Abhishek.

Yeah, he wants to do Time Machine with Abhishek and me. I’m comfortable working with Ramu. So why not another film? I haven’t done a sci-fi before.

Sarkar Raj is your first sequel.

Oh yeah! The inter-relations haven’t changed, though some new characters have been introduced. But the house, the ambience, the wife, sons and daughters-in-law and the working relations are all the same. I do hope it lives up to the expectations raised by Sarkar.

Any fear of audiences recoiling from your villainous aspirations in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag?

I looked upon it as a challenge. As an actor, I’ve the liberty to try as many characterisations and apply my craft to as many characters as possible. Earlier, the accusation against me was why I was only doing leading men’s roles? Now when I’m doing something different I’m questioned for playing a villain.

Q: Do you think you are now liberated of a specific image?

Certainly. Because of my age I’m able to do character roles. And because I do character roles I was able to play a villain in Ramu’s film. Because of the heroic roles I’ve done before, audiences may feel I should not be playing a villain. I respect that opinion. But as an actor it’s very important for me to do something different.

Anthony Hopkins, who’s one of my favourite actors and who generally plays sympathetic roles, plays a sadistic killer in Hannibal. But we admire his craft. So the audience needs to be more tolerant of my need to experiment. At 65, these are the kind of roles I’m getting. If people want to see me doing such unexpected roles, I’m fine. Otherwise I’m out of a job.

You’ve had the singular honour of being in both the versions of Sholay.

Why just me? Sachin is also in both the versions. He plays my brother in the new one.

The thought of playing a role already done to everlasting popularity by Amjad Khan… did that daunt you?

I don’t know why so much is being made out this. That someone decided to remake it is a great compliment to the original. Nobody questions filmmakers who do so many varied interpretations of Shakespeare’s Othello, Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet. When Vishal Bharadwaj makes Maqbool or Omkara he’s praised for how well he has adapted Shakespeare. Baz Luhrmann has done a very contemporary version of Romeo & Juliet. Then why not Ramu for re-interpreting Sholay.”

Why haven’t you and Ramesh Sippy worked together lately?

He hasn’t asked me. He hasn’t been directing films.

Do you miss working with those directors?

Of course! How can you forget your past? I don’t. I love my past.

Pooja Bhatt apparently thinks those who care about what’s happening around us should see her Dhokha than your Aag.
I’m sorry, I don’t buy that. We can’t decide what the audiences want to see. They aren’t animals in a zoo, caged labeled and ready to be transported at the zoo-keepers’ command. Today the audience is so wide and so open to every kind of cinema. I don’t see why they’d want to choose the one above the other.

A sense of disappointment that film’s title and the characters were changed?
The point is, I never intended to remake Sholay exactly the way it was. Sholay had created a benchmark for technical excellence, background, score, sound design, etc.

If Sholay catapulted Hindi cinema into the new age it wasn’t because of its plot which had been done earlier in films like Mera Gaon Mera Desh and later in Karma,China Gate and the Sridevi film Army.

I can think of 25 films with the same theme. It was the genius of Mr Ramesh Sippy and the finesse with which he put together the plot that created an enduring impact. The story of a man taking revenge by hiring mercernaries in a genre done earlier in Japanese in The Seven Samurai and as a spaghetti western in The Magnificent 7.

Sholay is a full-on formula film from Dharmendra and Asrani’s comedy to Sanjeev Kumar and Jayaji’s intense performances. Gabbar’s character almost verged on melodrama. The cumulative impact was stunning on the whole country, most of all me.

I’ve never met anyone who has interepreted Sholay better than me. I’m the biggest aficionado of Sholay. However I did not set out to make Sholay.

You didn’t?
No. Like I said the same theme has been done umpteenth times. It’s not the story that gets dated. It’s the packaging. Aag took in view the new times, new technology and new tastes and proceeds from there. My idea was to take the theme into a different direction. I was not trying to out-do Sholay.

I was doing a homage to Sholay. And it would be foolish of me to think I can better the original.No! See, when Sholay came cinema was the only source of entertainment for the public. Today the options are unlimited.

The characters are interpreted differently.
Of course they are. How can you expect the Basanti of 1975 to be replicated in the Ghungroo of 2007? Basanti was a voluble village -woman. Ghungroo is a street -wise city girl with sharp retorts. Likewise, even if I wanted to make Sushmita play the widow’s character as docilely as Jayaji did in Sholay I couldn’t.

Sushmita isn’t capable of looking submissive or of accepting the wrong that’s done to her.

So why did you name it Sholay earlier?
I wanted to draw ettention to my intention of paying a homage. But because of the legal hassles I decided to call it Ram Gopal Varma Ka Sholay, just as Devdas was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s interpretation of Devdas. But then the legal procedure would have taken time. And we couldn’t hold back the release.

So I decided on Aag which denotes the Inspector- character (Mohanlal)’s burning desire for revenge. But we couldn’t get the title Aag either. I think a film by that title with Govinda in the lead was released 7-8 years back.

So we had to go by RGV’s Aag. I’m told Aag sounds very old-school. And I say, thank God for that. RGV’s Aag is an old-school entertainer.

You sure there won’t be copyright trouble with RGV’s Aag?
So far no one has come forward to claim it. Jab hoga to dekha jayega. The title gives the project that formulistic feeling which I wanted. The whole film from the background score to the dialogues and characterization has a very retro- feeling.

Please explain.
Aag is the kind of cinema I grew up on. So I’ve applied new-age technology to age-old formulas of filmmaking. The reason why those earlier films were called ‘formula’ films was because they had something for everybody. I believe Aag has it too. I wanted to recapture that old lost feeling of enjoying a full-on formula flick.

A poprcorn film?
Yeah, that’s what it is.

If you knew all these problems would’ve cropped up would you’ve avoided calling it Sholay?
Yeah I would have avoided it. I never expected so many problems. My intentions weren’t underhand. I owe my bread and butter and whatever I am today to Mr Ramesh Sippy. If he didn’t make Sholay I’d have never become interested in filmmaking. I’d have remained a civil engineer.

That’s what I did for one year. It’s another matter that I was thrown out of that job….When I saw Sholay in 1975 at the Ram-Krishna theatre in Hyderabad and saw Ramesh Sippy’s name on the posters I decided then and there that this is what I wanted to do.

Ramesh Sippy will not hear the last of Sholay. Thirty-two years after he directed the classic made by father G P Sippy (who is now 93), Ramesh had to endure Ram Gopal Varma’s terrible remake week before last, and now there is another Sippy wanting to play with Sholay again.

This time it is his nephew, Sasha. BT met the reticent filmmaker at home, where posters of Sholay adorn the walls still, and got his take on RGV Ki Aag and Sasha’s plan to rekindle the smouldering embers of the 1975 hit movie.

What Ramu’s intentions were, I don’t know, admitted Ramesh. Everyone has the right to remake a movie. And while Ramu’s attempt was brave, it was also foolish. But he knows how to cover up for his deeds and put on a brave front. His apology will be appreciated but he need not have gone through this whole exercise and then apologised.

He should have attempted something different. He forgot he was taking a classic that’s embedded into the psyche of the Indian masses for years. As for Amitabh Bachchan’s role in Varma’s debacle, he added, He did what he felt was right. The audience gave its verdict and Amitabh has understood it.

Ramesh has nothing against remakes. There must be a definite and a right reason to remake a movie. In the West, remakes are done wonderfully. Titanic is a classic example, he said. But he is convinced certain works should be left untouched. That’s why they
are called classics. Nobody tried to remake Gone With The Wind, for example.

In Bollywood, he had praise for Sanjay Leela Bansali, Farhan Akhtar and Pradeep, who brought alive classics like Devdas, Don and Parineeta respectively. Sanjay felt he could give something that wasn’t there in the earlier black and white Devdas. He had a certain
concept in mind and accordingly, he updated it to the level of today’s audiences.

He justified his intent with a fantastic project. Similarly Parineeta and Don worked well too. The bottomline is that you need to know what you are going to do with the product which has a standing in the history of cinema, added Ramesh.

He is amazed, however, that RGV’s fiasco has not discouraged nephew Sasha from contemplating a Sippy remake of their own movie. Sasha is believed to have approached RGV to direct Sholay, but nothing came of this. I have to commend Shasha for taking RGV to the court and getting the name of his movie changed, but I cannot commend him for
this announcement.

I don’t see the reason for him to do so. Being a family elder, I certainly will advise him to stay away. Just because he has the right to the original, he should not use Sholay as a gimmick, warned Ramesh. Sasha needs more experience to attempt something like this.
He should make a few more films first.

Sholay, Ramesh revealed, was an exciting movie to make, but never an asy one. The industry wasn’t prepared for a movie like that. He wouldn’t want to remake his classic because he doesn’t think the original can be improved.

Maybe it could be made a little shorter and sharper, but then the intent will be lost. I was asked by my family to remake it about seven years ago and I refused, he said.

A Bollywood film, which was to be a tribute to Sholay (Flames) - the most iconic Hindi movie ever made - has flopped at the box office.

A week after Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag (Ram Gopal Varma’s Fire) was released, distributors say they have decided to pull it from cinemas by Friday.

Critics across India have panned the film and theatres in many parts of India have been running almost empty.

Trade analysts estimate the filmmakers will lose about $3m.
Often described as a “curry” western, Sholay was made in 1975. The film was inspired by Hollywood’s The Magnificent Seven, which itself was based on the Japanese film, Seven Samurai.

Back-fired

Sholay became a milestone in Indian cinema with an all-star cast, cult dialogue, stylish cinematography and a brilliant soundtrack which is still a hit with Indians.

Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag was meant to be the director Varma’s tribute to a film he says he has seen 27 times. But his attempt to rekindle the past has backfired badly. Trade analyst Amol Mehra says, “It was the biggest flop of our generation.” No one seems to disagree with him.

Film critic Komal Nahta says he is not surprised at the distributors’ decision to stop showing the film. “Such a high-profile film has been taken off theatres in its second week. How do you expect the exhibitors to continue to pay the theatre rent while getting nothing in return?” he asks.

Huge disappointment

I watched the film in a swanky Mumbai (Bombay) multiplex on Saturday, a day after the film was released.

There were not more than 15 people in the theatre watching the film - surprising as cinema halls are generally packed during the weekends. I had gone with high expectations, especially as the film has superstar Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of a villain.

Bachchan was in Sholay too, where he played one of the two main leads. But my fellow viewers were hugely disappointed and agreed that Bachchan had failed to impress.

Troubles

By the intermission, many disappointed fans had already left the theatre. It was a carnage of the original Sholay,” one fan said. The film had run into trouble from the word go. As soon as Varma announced his plans for a remake, he ran into copyright issues with the Sholay producer, Ramesh Sippy. After Sippy sued him in court, Varma was forced to change the name of the film from the planned Ram Gopal Varma ke Sholay. He also had to change the name of all the main characters.

Several of Bollywood’s films have been remade in the recent years, some of them have been successful, but others have failed miserably at the box-office. Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag is the biggest flop so far.

Though Ram Gopal Varma’s Sholay, aka Aag, has been given the savage treatment by reviewers and viewers alike, debutant Prashaant Raj who plays Jai, and who not only gets to encore Amitabh Bachchan’s role but also silently romance the simmering Sushmita Sen, is far from daunted by the adverse press.

“So far no one has disliked me or my performance,” he says a day after the film’s release when the dampening verdict is out. “In fact I did a lot of press in London. And I must say the girls there think of highly of me. Back home I admit the reactions have been pretty tame. I’ll be honest.

I held a show of Aag for my family friends and staff before release. The staffers were honest honest enough to tell me they didn’t like the film. Maybe somewhere audiences have failed to connect with this homage to Sholay. But I’m proud of what we’ve done.”

Interestingly Prashaant made his debut alongside another model and non-industry newcomer Muzamil Ibrahim.

“Yes I know Muzamil well. In fact a couple of days before his film Dokha and my Aag released simultaneously I rang him up to wish him all the best.”

Any sense of rivalry with Muzamil and all the other newcomers who’ve come in this year?

“None at all. I believe there’s room for plenty of more new talent in the industry. In some ways I identify with Muzamil. We’re both from outside the industry. We don’t have a father in the industry. But yes, I do have a godfather Ram Gopal Varma and so does Muzamil (Mahesh Bhatt).”

Prashaant has just completed a film outside Varma’s terrain. “It’s a thriller about a bunch of warward youngsters called Toss directed by Ramesh Katkar. But let me tell you, I’m also doing Ramuji’s production to be directed by my namesake Prashant.It will be within the genre that RG productions specializes in.”

So here’s one RGV protégée who unlike Manoj Bajpai, Randeep Hooda and Mohit Ahlawat doesn’t intend to fly the coop.

At least not yet.

The original Sholay had a bad start in its first couple of weeks in 1975 but turned around to become one the biggest Bollywood blockbusters of all time. Sholay 2007, aka Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, has had a disastrous start too but there are no signs of a turnaround. Having been taken off many screens throughout the country, it has fared little better in city plexes.

Week One began with seven shows but by Sunday the halls were going half empty. Week Two began with two shows but by Sunday both the INOX plexes (Forum and City Centre) had slashed it to a token solitary daily show of Aag. The Elgin Road property replaced the Varma disaster with Varma’s Darling, which started on a brisk note from September 7.

It’s not that Aag ever registered a drop — the fact is Babban and Co. never rose to the occasion at all. While other big box office duds of this year like Salaam-e-Ishq and Jhoom Barabar Jhoom at least started on a busy note with a healthy opening weekend, RGV Ki Aag could not set the box office on fire for a single show. “Yes, RGV Ki Aag has had one of the worst openings of the year. I will lose about 50 per cent of the total amount I have invested,” rues Mahendra Soni of Shree Venkatesh Films, which is distributing the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer in the region.

For what was touted to be one of the biggest movies of the year, just 30-35 per cent occupancy in Week One was a catastrophe. “The promos were enough for the audiences to decide that they did not want to watch this film,” says Mumbai-based trade analyst Indu Mirani. The critical onslaught on the movie that followed the release even affected its piracy prospects with the mother print being sold at a low price.

Big screen or small, no one’s interested to check out Varma’s tribute to the Ramesh Sippy classic. “The film is a complete washout and is undoubtedly the biggest 2007 film till now to have bitten the dust,” says Prashant Srivastava of 89 Cinemas. Soni, who had also distributed Salaam-e-Ishq, is counting his annual losses: “Salaam-e-Ishq at least pulled in the family crowd but Aag hasn’t found favour with anyone.” The situation is no different in the standalone theatres. “We have had to take off the film after just a week,” says Arijit Dutta of Priya Cinemas.

All this has worked out just fine for Sajid Khan’s Heyy Babyy. The Akshay Kumar-starrer, which released a week before Aag, is still going great guns and has got seven shows even in Week Three. “Heyy Babyy’s occupancy over its second and third weekends has been about 80-90 per cent,” says Saurabh Varma of INOX. “As for Aag, when a film doesn’t do well, there is no other option but to change it, even if it’s in the middle of the week.”
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Ram Gopal Varma silences the Aag critics… almost

Were do you think you went wrong with Aag?
I did go wrong. The one person I must have made supremely happy is Ramesh Sippy. I’m very happy to make him happy because he made my life. I saw Sippy’s Sholay again last night. It’s fantastic. I must’ve been nuts to attempt it.

All my impressions of Sholay over the years went into Aag. Now I ask myself, if someone else had made Aag and I as a fan of Sholay went to see Aag, how would I react? I’d probably hate Aag as much as pople have hated it. The original is too deeply embedded in the public’s psyche.

Were you at all preprared for the severe backlash?
Can’t say it was entirely unexpected. When you attempt to remake the most revered film in the history of Indian cinema you’re going into the realm of the sacrilegous. Everyone from friends to well-wishers to people who didn’t care a damn either way warned me I was heading for trouble.

Irrespective of whether the film was good or bad I was expecting extreme criticism. But I was not expecting such a low opening for the film.Whether it was because of the title or because of the film’s look, I don’t know.

People felt the film was looking very 1970s
But I wanted to make a 1970s film! So one way of looking at it as a homage to the decade. The other way is to see it as outdated. It’s a question of perception.

Aag is your career’s most vilified and ridiculed film.
I’d think so. The baggage of expectations was too high. The brickbats were a part of what people see as this upstart trying to tamper with a classic. The backlash isn’t personal. Sometimes the criticism against some film begins and rises in a wave, all in one voice. I don’t think people sat down and conspired to trash the film.

What according to you is the reason for the backlash?
They hate my guts for having the audacity to attempt to remake Sholay. But I’m used to be hated for what I do. Only this time the volume of protests is higher.

What do you mean?
They keep ridiculing me for everything I do. Everyone has a mind and tongue and the right to use them. I think it’s human pleasure to attack others. No one has the time to be personal.

What about the SMS that said you should learn filmmaking from your former assistants Madhur Bhandarkar and Shimit Amin?
We all have an opinion on everything under the sun. If somebody feels I should learn filmmaking they’re right in their own way. When Kissna failed they said Subhash Ghai should enroll in his own film institute. Ridiculing people is a form of entertainment.

At least I’m entertaining people more with their comments on Aag than I did with the film. They should at least thank me for that and give me a 5-star rating for providing post-release entertainment.

Maybe the volume of work goes against you.
I don’t agree with that. I don’t do anything but make films. And I can’t take a break from what I do just because people want me to make less films.

In any case I don’t think people care if I make 2 or 20 films a year as long as they like what they see, And who knows what will click? When I made Satya it was meant to be a no-show film with newcomers and a non-recognizable hero with a beard.

Then I made Daud with Sanjay Dutt and Urmila which was supposed to be a sure-shot. It bombed. I put in the same effort in every film. If I knew a film wouldn’t work am I a madman to make it?

But people feel Aag was a careless work?
That’s again a viewpoint. My intention was re-do the original without tampering with the spirit of Sholay. Now take Mohanlal. I had him with a beard all through because my logic was, how can a man without fingers shave? Then people say Mohanlal looks like a bear with the beard! Now what do I do?

As for Mr Bachchan as Babban, I wanted it to be low-profile. People found him inert and unenergetic. Let me clear this. Every actor has done exactly what he or she was told to.

If Mr Bachchan’s performance was found to be inconsistent it’s because through his character I tried to pay a homage to all the villains I know from Mad Max to Gabbar Singh to Anthony Hopkins in The Silence Of The Lambs to Jack Nicholson in Batman.

I was too busy enjoying Mr Bachchan’s performance on sets. I lost track of the character’s consistency in the film.

So you take full blame?
Yes. I take blame for every actor, camereman, dialogue writer,etc. They did what I asked them to. I kept on insisting Aag was a formula film. I never said I was making a classic. But I guess no one was listening. Right from the word go my Sholay was jinxed.

From the court cases to the title change…. Once I got caught in the process of separating the legal matters from the film I was jacked. See I’m a genre filmmaker. Sholay is not a genre. I was trying to artificially capture what didn’t come naturally to me. I got confused.So obviously it wouldn’t work.