Ram Gopal Varma: ‘I don’t follow morals or religion but I follow law’

Ram Gopal Varma then read more such philosophical books which made him a rebel. “I live like a rebel. What is a rebel? Rebel is nothing but going against what is accepted. But I’ll always follow only one thing. I’ll follow the law. I don’t follow morality. I don’t follow religion. I don’t follow… Because the law is necessary. Because if you have to live in a city, you need to follow certain things for the sake of that. And it’s a small price to pay for all the benefits you get from society. So in the four aspects, the only thing I follow is the law. Other three, I don’t.”

The Satya director also has an idealistic take on the responsibility of cinema. He said, “What is a film? It is a certain medium that is either used as entertainment or education or whatever the maker chooses to do as a mode of expression. Expression is about one’s outlook toward life in his perspective. And that is what is protected by the so-called freedom of expression. So, why should freedom of expression exist? Why should anyone offend? Why should freedom exist?”

However, RGV cites how moral codes are ambiguous and sometimes curb freedom. “See, we are living in a world where there will be some countries where the ankle of the foot can’t be exposed in public. At the same time, there could be another country where wearing bikinis is not a problem. Then who will determine which is right and which is not? You have to do it. Or if you are abiding by the laws of that society or a community, you can do that. So, the only thing that can be done is by regulation. In that regulation, in my constitution, I am not given freedom of expression. So, some people might like it, some might not. But unless you give that freedom, there will never be a free flow of ideas.”