Some filmmakers look at their best films with reverence, but not Ram Gopal Varma. He is somebody who doubts his perfection and measures it against the need of the audience. Evidently, after the success of the ‘geographically restricted’ film, Killing Veerappan, his ambition has soared and he is taking a completely repackaged biopic on Veerappan to the entire country and the world.
“People in the South know Veerappan in bits and pieces. But in the rest of the country or abroad, people don't know much about him. Taking Killing Veerappan to them will be like providing them with half-baked cake,” says the directors and justifies his strategy by giving the example of Osama bin Laden. “Zero Dark Thirty as a film concentrated only on what led to the killing of Osama bin Laden because it was taken for granted that the audience in general already know who Bin laden was and what led to 9/11. Likewise, when I made Killing Veerappan in Kannada, I concentrated only on the operation of killing Veerappan because the people of Karnataka know all the other details about the bandit,” he states.
Taking his film on the back of his name, which is already known across the country, RGV is reshooting the film to give a biopic feel. “The international version of Veerappan is going to be completely reshot with a lot of new actors because it’s now a biopic and the emphasis won’t be just on killing Veerappan. It will capture the tremendous drama of the rise of Veerappan, the dangerously complex situations of how the Special Task Force and Border security forces failed, before it unfolds the deadly strategy which led to the killing of Veerappan,” he reveals.
According to the filmmaker, a businessman from Dubai gave him the idea and is also willing to produce the film. “He along with an international partner are producing the biopic and his only condition was that I push it to the highest of international standards,” says RGV and adds that the film will involve foreign technicians especially in the usage of various technical effects and extremely realistic computer graphics.