HYDERABAD: “I am not that kind of a Ramgopal Varma fan who retweets him or likes his posts,” says debut writer Rekha Parvathala, a simple Telugu girl who launched her book titled Varma Mana Karma about the maverick director.
“I am someone who lives my life based on his philosophy of life. His thoughts about life, freedom, marriages, society etc are radical and practical. I have imbibed a lot of his ideologies and the book is an attempt to unravel the man who is highly misunderstood,” she says. Her book was launched by the director himself at Press Club, Somajiguda, on Monday.
The 25-year-old techie said that she watched the cult movie Shiva, directed by RGV, as the director is known, eight years after it released. “I have been watching his movies and reading about him since a child. I have listened to his interview series titled Ramuism and found that he is consistent in his thoughts about individual freedom, space, passion, societal boundaries etc. This was my attempt to unravel the philosopher in the director,” she says.
Rekha says that her love and passion for the ‘’legend’ also helped her to put her foot down when it came to marriage and swearing off to be single. “His debate about the futility of marriage and children is especially convincing,” she says. She spent about three months putting together the 110-page book published by AR Publishers and available as a paperback and on e-commerce websites. The book talks of her love for him, the journey of understanding him, and even a quick section on all his mad, sarcastic answers to questions posed by the media in all these years. “It is a sort of RGV101 compilation at various levels,” she states.
Rekha also has created an app called RGVZoomin in Play Store which is a compilation of everything about him, from his interviews to his social media posts and other allied information about him.
Speaking at the event, Rekha said the title is a funny take on typically what the public thinks about him. The event was anchored by journalist, RJ and singer Swapna Sundari, who had interviewed the director across multiple episodes of the YouTube series titled Ramuism.
RGV says no to all corona precautions
At the book launch, director Ramgopal Varma said, in his signature style that he basically loves to live on his terms and some people detest him for that while some adore him. And that some even get inspired by it. “Either ways, it doesn’t matter to me. My life is all about reading, writing and movie making. I dont care about anything else.” When asked if he took the Covid-19 precautions seriously, he said, “I’ve never worn a mask, never used a sanitiser, and have never followed social distancing. I hate to live a life with such restrictions. I have to die because I did not follow these so-called preca-utions, so be it,” he said. Later, he also interacted with SiraSri, writer of his first book Vodka with Varma and psychologist Visesh.
— Manju Latha Kalanidhi
kalanidhi@newindianexpress.com
@mkalanidhi