BHUBANESWAR: After getting trolled on the social media for his ignorance about Odisha, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma reacted to the virtual criticism.
Speaking to TNIE, the filmmaker insisted that the outrage against his tweet about actress Ankeeta Maharana was ‘gross-exaggeration.’
“I frankly think too much has been made out of nothing. No one can be expected to know about everywhere (every place) unless one is a student of geography.
Why would people in Orissa (Odisha) know about a Telugu state. Since, I don’t know the language nor do I know a single person in Odisha, nor did I ever see an Oriya (Odia) film! I was just being honest,” the filmmaker wrote in a message shared with TNIE. Known for his pathbreaking films like Shiva, Satya, Company, Sarkar and Rakta Charitra, the director said he was now keen to learn about Odisha after discovering Ankeeta—rechristened as ‘Apsara Rani’ in his next film. His upcoming film featuring Ankeeta would be shot in Mumbai.
But, of late, the director has been wanting to visit the State. “I really want to visit Odisha because even Apsara has been raving about its scenic beauty,” he said, adding his willingness to gather information about the State’s film policy. Earlier, RGV raked up a controversy on Twitter as he announced about his latest ‘discovery.’ “Before meeting Apsara,I dint even hear about Orissa since the 1999 hurricane..but after meeting her now, I realised that Orissa creates all kinds of hurricanes..it’s been a great revelation that Orissa has such beauties ..MORE POWER TO ORISSA @apsara_rani,” the filmmaker had tweeted on July 06.
In no time, Odia twitter users took objection to hi posts. They were irked about the director’s shallow knowledge about the State, its ‘talent pool’ and rich cultural legacy. Many even criticised him for misspelling the State’s name as ‘Orissa.’ Later, the spelling of ‘Odisha’ was corrected in his Twitter post. A few critics had even demanded his arrest.
However, the filmmaker didn’t come up with any apology online. Odia girl, Ankeeta Maharana, had earlier acted in Telugu films. She had also acted in the yet-to-release Odia film based on the wedding gift blast case of Patnagarh. “I saw her (Ankeeta) at an event of some film and her screen presence struck me like a bolt of lightning,” said Varma. The actress will now be seen in Varma’s next titled ‘Thriller.’