Demystifying News

“My film revolves around one situation and reveals the pressure TV channel heads mount on their workers and the deadlines that make them contort,distort and at times create news out of nothing.”

But there is not a tinge of revenge for the way his visit to the Taj in Mumbai,accompanied by then Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh and the latter’s son actor Riteish (he plays an important role in the film,besides a star cast comprising Amitabh Bachchan,Rajpal Yadav,Rajat Kapoor,Gul Panag,etc),was assailed by the fourth estate.

“It is the job of media persons to expose everyone and everything and I am exposing them as a filmmaker. There’s nothing personal about it,” he states.

He,however,empathises with TV reporters for the “the sheer pressure to perform” they undergo.

“Television plays an integral part in an average household and I have attempted to prove that everything we see as news and get influenced by need not necessarily be true. The way a report is packaged,with background music,et al,there is no telling if it is the whole truth or if there is any truth in the story at all,” opines Varma,who admits he turns to foreign films—“I loved Avatar”—to hone his cinematic skills.

“The Censor Board had some problem about our composing the film’s theme song in tune with the national anthem,so we changed it and now there’s no issue,”he says.