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When Abhishek Bachchan collaborated with filmmaker Mani Ratnam for the first time on the film Guru, he delivered what was seen as one of the finest performances of his career. Soon afterwards, Abhishek collaborated with the director once again on the film Raavan, and while the project received some praise, director Ram Gopal Varma was left confused by some of Abhishek’s choices in the film. So much so that after RGV finished watching the film, he actually had to be call Abhishek to get some answers.
In a recent chat with Film Companion, RGV recalled that in the film, Abhishek’s character Beera, who is portrayed as Raavan (from Ramayana), “has a strange habit of constantly shaking his head.” He recalled, “When I was seeing it in the theatre, whenever he does that, everyone is looking at each other because they didn’t understand that… like did that really happen or…”
RGV said that as soon as he got out of the theatre, he felt that he had to ask Abhishek what he was thinking. “I called Abhishek and I asked him. ‘What was that?’ He said Mani and he discussed this. Raavan has ten heads but obviously in a contemporary thing, he can’t be having ten heads, so he had ten thoughts running in his head and he just shakes them off and sticks on one thought,” he shared.
Ram Gopal Varma used this as an example to explain that a lot of times, discussions between actors and directors behind closed doors don’t really translate on screen. “This is something they have discussed separately. Now, I, as an audience, don’t know that. So, even a great director like Mani also… I made those mistakes also. What we think inside in the discussion room what comes outside (is different),” he said.
Raavan was made in Hindi and Tamil simultaneously. The Hindi version starred Abhishek as Raavan and Vikram playing the part of Lord Ram. The Tamil version, named Raavanan, Vikram played the Raavan part and Prithviraj Sukumaran played Lord Ram. Aishwarya played the role of Sita in both films.
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