Opting out of the rat race

Already, there are complaints that Daud is nothing but Rangeela, Part 2. "Not true. In terms of characters, technique and storyline, Daud is the extreme opposite of Rangeela. It is an entertaining, action film, while Rangeela was a simple love story," he says muttering, with barely concealed irritation, an oft-repeated defence.

But everything about the film indicates that Varma has not exorcised his Rangeela hangover. Even A R Rahman’s music seems to be a rehash of the `Tanha, Tanha’ music score. Varma dismisses that, with casual disdain. "The Daud songs are not mere audio tracks, but situational numbers which fit in with the entire concept of the film. They were recorded with a certain style of picturisation in mind," he says.

But to give the man his due, Varma has moved away from commercial cinema — in an attempt to prove that success is not everything — to produce Satya, an underworld caper, with a zero-star cast. "I don’t want to repeat myself, nor do I make any special effort to be `different’. I make films on subjects that interest me at a particular point of time. After Rangeela I went back to the South to make a horror film called Dayyam. I wanted to prove that I could make a better horror film than Raat, but it turned out to be a bigger flop," he says.

But he accepts hits and misses as his karma and moves on to depicting the underworld realistically. With Satya, he plans to show the pain and the tragedy that comes with living under the shadow of a gun. "It is not meant to glorify them, though it may sympathise with them, to a degree. My aim is to make the audience forget that they are watching a film. Since it is not possible to do this in the existing star system, I have chosen lesser-known actors," says Varma.

He has also decided to dispense with the song-and-dance routines that seem so integral to Indian cinema. "Film-makers have started believing that songs can make a film work. And the director, sometimes even without his knowledge, starts designing his film on the basis of the commercial demands of the trade. That’s why all of them look false," he says.

Varma seems to be cocking his snoot at all the truisms of film making. Is he looking for critical acclaim over commercial success? "Don’t get me wrong. I just think that if a film is gripping enough and is able to hold an audience’s attention, it will work. Hollywood has slowly, but surely, managed to erase the line between good cinema and commercial cinema. I want to achieve this with Satya," he says. And if the box office does not repose the same faith in him, Varma has managed to carve a niche for himself in Bollywood. He has pulled off a coup of sorts by being co-producer for a film along with Mani Rathnam and Shekhar Kapur. Mani Rathnam, who directs the film, has already finished the first schedule with Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in Laddakh. But even here, Varma errs on the side of self- effacement. "There was no deep thought involved in making a film together, it was just an impulsive decision. I really don’t know much about this film, because it is entirely Mani’s baby. Shekhar and I are just co-producers," he says.

For a man who may not have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Varma is strangely reluctant to acknowledge that some things don’t need to be inherited. They can also be earned.