Ram Gopal Varma

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ram Gopal Varma

• Does Ram Gopal Varma smoke: Yes

• Does Ram Gopal Varma drink alcohol: Yes

• RGV was obsessed with movies from his childhood. He would often skip his engineering classes to watch films. In an interview, he said that he would watch the same movie again and again just to see certain scenes of his interest; this is how he developed an interest in direction.

• Although he began his career as a site engineer at Krishna Oberoi Hotel In Hyderabad, he always dreamt of opening a video library in the near future. Slowly and steadily, he gathered the required amount of money and eventually opened a video cafe in Hyderabad. It was only through this video cafe that RGV developed his first contact in the South Indian film industry.

• Even after failing as an assistant director in the Telugu film Collector Gari Abbai, a determined RGV made his directorial debut straight away with a Telugu movie titled Siva (1989). The film became a huge success at the South Indian box-office and RGV won many ‘best directorial debut awards.’

• Soon, RGV started to make a transition from Telugu cinema to mainstream Bollywood films. His breakthrough in Bollywood came with Aamir Khan and Urmila Martondkar starrer Rangeela (1995).

• He was awarded the National Film Award (Scripting) for his 1999 political drama movie- Shool.

• CNN-IBN once listed RGV’s Satya (1998) in the 100 greatest Indian films of all time.

• In the year 2004, he was featured on the BBC TV show- Bollywood Bosses.

• RGV’s Sarkar Trilogy is based on the life of late Indian politician, Bal Thackeray. The first two installments in the Trilogy became very popular and were even screened at various international film festivals.