Ram Gopal Varma and Amitabh Bachchan have collaborated on many movies like ‘Sarkar’, ‘Sarkar Raj‘, ‘Nishabd’ among others. The actor-director duo share a great work chemistry but during a recent chat with ETimes, the Varma revealed he also had a difference of opinion with Bachchan during a scene in ‘Sarkar’. They collaborate well creatively and also then understand each other’s perspective.
Varma recalled that it was during a scene where Bachchan asks his son Vishnu (played by Kay Kay Menon) to leave the house. Recalling how some actors take the scene to another level with their acting, RGV explained, “During Sarkar, Bachchan and me had a difference of opinion about how to do the scene where he asks his son to get out. So, I said, ‘Already you shouted at him in the dining table. So, now don’t shout. You get angry only when you have hope. When you lose hope, you become indifferent. Hence, that’s how you should react. You become calm. Because that’s about a decision. So, you should just be cold-bloodedly asking him to go.’ But Amit ji said, ‘You know Ramu, but whatever it is, he’s a father at the end of the day. And why would he not be emotional? I said, ‘yes, father is emotional. But you are Sarkar! So, Sarkar cannot be like any other father’.”
RGV added, “But he didn’t agree with me.I said, okay. How much can I argue with Bachchan? So, I shot the scene the way he wanted. But at night 11 pm he called me and said, ‘Ramu I’ve been thinking about the scene. You are right. Let’s reshoot the scene tomorrow.’ So, we reshot the scene and then he came up with this expression which became iconic. Now that’s Bachchan’s idea, his genius. Not mine. The only thing I told him was, when you get disgusted with someone, you just flick it like a caterpillar or something. That’s the theory I gave. But the gesture he did in the scene was his and it was iconic. I think that is the relationship between an actor and a director.”
‘Sarkar’ also starred Abhishek Bachchan and the sequel to the film, ‘Sarkar Raj’ also had Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, along with Abhishek and Big B.
In this interview, Varma had said that Nana Patekar in ‘The Attack Of 26/11’ and Bachchan are the few actors who have done beyond what he expected out of them as a director.
