When Ram Gopal Varma confessed being ‘selfish’ with Urmila Matondkar; recalled their ‘biggest problem’: ‘I just couldn’t accept…’

But it all began with Rangeela (1995), the film that made Urmila Matondkar an overnight star, became a massive box office success, and kicked off their decade-long creative partnership. In a recent interview with the Times Of India, Urmila said, “It’s not that I was in every movie that Ramuji made. I am sure he didn’t think that he would put me in every movie either.” Though Urmila wasn’t in every film RGV made, she undoubtedly delivered some of her career’s best performances under his direction. Let’s take a look at the films they made together.

Rangeela

While Rangeela is often considered RGV and Urmila’s first collaboration, not many know that the filmmaker had first cast Urmila in the forgettable Drohi. In an earlier interaction with Zoom, RGV revealed that when the choreographer didn’t turn up while shooting Drohi, he asked Urmila to dance on her own in a song. When she successfully pulled it off, he was convinced she was perfect for Rangeela, a film that would change her life.

In his biography Guns and Thighs, RGV admitted to being “mesmerized” by Urmila’s beauty and how Rangeela made her “the nation’s sex symbol,” —a label that both helped and hindered her career. “One of my primary motives in making Rangeela was to capture Urmila’s beauty eternally on camera and to make it a benchmark for sex symbols. I would say that I have never felt more of a cinematic high than when I watched her through my camera on the sets of Rangeela,” he wrote.

He also confessed that while Urmila was a “simple” girl during the shooting of Rangeela, he had “unrealistic” expectations from her. “I don’t know how this may sound, but my biggest problem with Urmila on a personal front was that I just couldn’t accept her being an ordinary human being. I know that is a very unrealistic expectation from any woman but then you have to understand that I am a very filmy person. She was, in person, a simple sweetheart but I, very selfishly, always wanted her to be larger-than-life even in real life,” he wrote.

Daud

Ram Gopal Varma’s 1997 road adventure comedy Daud is one of his most fun experiments. Alongside Mast, it’s among his lightest collaborations with Urmila Matondkar. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, and their on-screen chemistry was a highlight. However, despite its quirky charm, Daud didn’t quite click at the box office. Even A.R. Rahman’s soundtrack—coming off the massive success of Rangeela—couldn’t recreate the same magic.

Satya

When Urmila joined RGV’s career-defining Satya, she was the only known face in a cast that featured newcomers like J.D. Chakravarthy and Manoj Bajpayee. While the film would go on to become a cult classic, at the time, it was a huge risk for Urmila to take on a girl-next-door role when she was playing lead roles in big projects. “Rangeela made me a huge star and Satya made me unlearn that. When you have spent many years trying to become somebody and have to shed that status overnight to become a nobody, that was me in Satya,” she said.

The actor also revealed that she borrowed her mother’s old sarees because she thought they were perfect for the role. “I am glad I could use my star status in a film that went on to become one of our finest,” she said.

Kaun

Kaun remains one of Urmila Matondkar’s most remarkable performances, a film that continues to haunt audiences long after its release. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Urmila called it “the craziest of all.” Shot in just 15 days at a single location, with no costume changes for the cast, Kaun stands out as one of the wackiest films ever made. Released a year after Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai shattered box office records, Urmila shared how the film had to be defended against more conventional releases.

“I was constantly screaming in my interviews that you can’t expect it to become a Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or a Judaai because it is not made with that kind of mindset, budget or intent.” She admitted that Kaun was a risk for her, as she had the most to lose compared to the film’s relatively new cast members, Manoj Bajpayee and Sushant Singh. “A producer came to me and asked, ‘How could you even do a role like that?’ They didn’t have as much to lose as I did,” she said.

Mast

Mast was a rare romantic musical in RGV’s filmography. Like Kaun, its success relied on Urmila’s stardom, as RGV cast a newcomer—Aftab Shivdasani—in the lead. The film’s soundtrack, with hits like “Hui Main Mast” and “Ruki Ruki”, became massively popular. The plot revolved around a boy who is infatuated with an actress and leaves his family to be near her. The film was both a critical and commercial success.

Jungle

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Urmila Matondkar has been the hero of Ram Gopal Varma’s films. Once again, the filmmaker chose to cast a new actor, Fardeen Khan, fresh off the harsh criticism for his debut film Prem Aggan, in Jungle. RGV kept his trusted Urmila in the lead female role to bring the gravitas that this survival thriller needed.

Bhoot

Three years after Jungle, Urmila reunited with RGV for Bhoot, their final collaboration. The movie remains one of the finest horror films in Hindi cinema, a genre Bollywood rarely gets right. Urmila played the role of a possessed woman, earning her widespread acclaim. The film was also commercially successful despite being songless—an anomaly at the time.

In an earlier interaction with Film Companion, RGV shared why he only considered Urmila for the role. He said, “Urmila has very strong expressions. Her face is very mobile, her eyes speak so much. I wanted to create her character as an everyday housewife, someone innocent, and to then see the transition to the bhoot slowly taking over her. I always knew that Urmila was the only actress at the time who could carry that off.”