Popular Bollywood director Ram Gopal Varma, known for his penchant to depict real-life stories on celluloid, has now zeroed in on his next story – a psychological thriller based on the Indian media’s obsession with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The movie has been tentatively titled “Blow,” coherent with the number of so-called “blows” that the media keeps generating to the BJP’s putative PM candidate. “It had been quite a while since I made a proper psycho movie, though most of my recent movies have made psychos out their viewers. I didn’t want to do the usual villains or ghosts harassing a little girl kinda story. I was looking at real-life events for something different, when I found this glaring example of obsession right before me on television. I’m not sure if this kinda collective obsession and hounding of one particular individual has ever been depicted in any movie before, so this will hopefully be a first,” Varma told The UnReal Times correspondent Sarkar Raj.
According to Varma, the movie promises to be an excruciating and mentally draining exercise. “I want viewers to feel like they’re in Modi’s shoes. So if my movie makes viewers close their ears and scream ‘STOPPPPPPPPPPPPP’, I will consider it as a pat on my back. However, the movie’s not entirely about minute-to-minute obsession. There is an item number by Nisha Kothari but then again that’s also titled ‘Major blow to Modi.’ Urmila has been finalized to play the role of a well-known woman journalist constantly looking to bring Modi down while proclaiming to be neutral.
“The lead actor hasn’t been finalized yet,” Varma added, “and we are looking at a number of hirsute actors from Emraan Hashmi to Kabir Bedi. My top choice is however Abhishek Bachchan. After all, what can be a bigger blow to Modi than to have that guy immortalize him on celluloid?”