Ram Gopal Varma- Talking about ‘Phoonk’

Today while coming across through MSN I found an interview of Ram Gopal Varma about the success of his latest released movie ‘Phoonk’.

While giving the interview Ramu said that the film has broken the fallacy that without a song and without a star a film can’t work in Box Office. Following are some parts of the discussions with Ram Gopal Varma-

Q. Ramu, did you do black magic in theaters which helped fetch audience for 'Phoonk'?

[Laughs] Well, let that be a mystery! What I can see though is that industry seems to be in a state of shock with the success of the film. They were not really hoping that a film like 'Phoonk' would actually fetch a 100% opening across the country.

Q. What do you feel is so shocking about the way Phoonk has performed at the box office?

First and foremost it has broken the fallacy that films with no stars and songs can't work at the box office. So many in the industry are shocked because we have constantly lived under this impression that a film can be a success only if there are big stars, item songs and comedy ingredients. Now tomorrow if someone says this, 'Phoonk' can be clearly looked as an exhibit because isme naa comedy thi, naa gaane, naa hi stars!


Q. But stars can't be discounted, isn't it?

No way can they be discounted. But then how many saleable stars do we have? 10-12 maybe! In how many films can they act in a year? Perhaps 20 or 25! Now Bollywood needs at least 120 movies to be churned out every year to keep the distributors and exhibitors running. So who acts in these remaining 100 odd movies? You need to have an alternate mechanism in place. This is where the subject matter comes in. You may not have stars but then you should have a subject which is good enough for an audience to be enticed enough to walk into theaters, just like Phoonk did.


Q. You would still continue to make films with stars as well as newcomers, isn't it?

That's exactly the point. It is the subject which warrants whether you need stars for them or not. I would have films with star power and also actors like Sudeep (lead actor in 'Phoonk') who fit into the character definition. See, if you go to a DVD library, so many times you pick a DVD if the three line synopsis on the cover excites you enough. The film may not boast of known names but the subject could be interesting enough. Hollywood has realized that and is quickly moving in that direction where it is not being dependent on stars any more. Bollywood too can be seen going in the same direction.



Source: http://entertainment.in.msn.com/