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"Who says Gabbar was disinterested in sex?" - RGV
By:
Subhash
K.
Jha,
IndiaFM
Monday,
October
16,
2006
It's
Day
2
of
Ram
Gopal
Varma
Ke
Sholay
and
the
indefatigable
Ram
Gopal
Varma
is
shooting
with
his
new-age
Gabbar
in
a
house
near
Yari
Road
in
suburban
Mumbai.
"It's
Mr
Bachchan's
introductory
scene.
I
had
to
start
with
Gabbar
Singh's
scenes
first.
And
what
can
I
say?
Thirty
years
of
the
impact
that
Amjad
Khan
had
on
me
as
Gabbar
Singh,
has
disappeared
in
one
days'
shooting.
In
the
very
first
shot
Amitji
just
bowled
me
over.
For
a
guy
like
me
who
has
grown
up
on
Gabbar
Singh
and
everything
that
I
know
about
filmmaking
came
from
watching
Sholay....to
forget
the
earlier
Gabbar
wasn't
easy.
Mr
Bachchan
has
made
the
impossible
happen." Ramu
warms
up
to
the
topic.
"For
me
Gabbar
Singh
is
now
Amitabh
Bachchan.
And
I'm
sure
that's
how
it's
going
to
be
for
audiences
when
the
film
releases."
Dressed in intimidating clothes with a stick in his hand, AB looks every inch the decadent gangster. "He has got quite a lot of accessories. See the whole point of Gabbar Singh in the city in my Sholay as opposed to Gabbar in the Chambal Valley is that the latter is cut off from all civilization. Mr Bachchan's Gabbar is a devious gangster who stays in Mumbai and challenges the authorities to catch him. So he isn't on the run nor is he in prison. This isn't a scruffy frantically on-the-run gangster like the ones in my Satya or Company. My Sholay is going to be a very exotic glamorous film. And Mr Bachchan 's Gabbar will be suave, dapper and elegant. Mr Bachchan's Gabbar is like Phantom. He's in touch with the minds of terrorists from all over the world. I wanted to make him look menacing and yet magnetic appealing and panther-like." On Wednesday When Mr Bachchan walked in for the first day's shooting in his ordinary clothes and the stick, there was a discernible gasp.
Says Ramu, "He hadn't done that much to his looks - no wigs, not too many accessories except the stick, no stained teeth at all - but he exuded terror. He has brought in all the elements of the original Gabbar. Then he has brought in his own element which only he can describe. "
Ramu chuckles, "All these years Mr Bachchan has hidden his evil side so well. I want to bring it out on screen. How can anyone be so correct? No one can be so morally perfect. Like I always said Sholay to me is synonymous with Gabbar. And now Gabbar is synonymous with Mr Bachchan. He's the heart of the film."
One radical change from earlier plans. Himesh Reshammiya will no longer sing Mehbooba o mehbooba. "Male vocals didn't fit into the song any longer. Asha Bhosleji will sing the song for Urmila and Amitji will pitch in a few lines. That's a change from the original. Because in the earlier Sholay Amjad Khan never danced or sang. I'd have loved to have Himesh sing Mehbooba. But it just didn't fit in."
So does Gabbar Singh still remain the guy with no overt sexual desires? Ramu nearly falls off his directorial chair. "Are you crazy? Did you see Gabbar's lust when Helen was dancing? Who says Gabbar was disinterested? He was looking at Helen as though he'd eat her up. Trust me. I'm the lust expert. The same sort of chemistry will exist between Mr Bachchan and Urmila."
In the meanwhile the voices against Ramu's Sholay continue to blare. "I believe Amjad Khan's son gave a statement that Mr Bachchan shouldn't play Gabbar Singh. He should at least see what I've done. Everyone from Lata Didi to Hemaji feels making Sholay is like playing with fire. Well I've one consolation for them. Since the critics have already exhausted all their expletives for Shiva, they'd have nothing left to say about Sholay. I think they'll pool their money and hire a gangster to get rid of me. If Allah, Jesus Christ and Vaishno Devi come together to plead against my doing Sholay I'm still making it. Aage jo hoga wohdekha jayega ."
Incidentally Basanti remains un-cast. "Why this brouhaha over Basanti? She isn't as important in my Sholay as she was in the earlier version. If you remove the tonga and ghagra-choli from Basanti she's just another girl in the plot."
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