SS Rajamouli’s Hanuman comments at Varanasi event like Amitabh Bachchan abusing god in Deewaar: Ram Gopal Varma

While it was certain that the Globetrotter event, marking the official launch of director SS Rajamouli’s Mahesh Babu and Priyanka Chopra-starrer Varanasi, would attract worldwide attention, no one expected that the ceremony would make headlines for the wrong reasons, and least of all for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. However, when the event faced multiple setbacks, including technical glitches that caused delays, an irked Rajamouli expressed his frustration while addressing the gathering, stating that he felt let down by Hanuman, whom his father, scriptwriter V Vijayendra Prasad, had said would guide him on the occasion.

Even as he faced online criticism, the backlash soon spilt into the public domain and ended in a formal complaint being filed against him. However, he also found voices of support on the occasion, including from veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to pen a long post defending him. Recently, Varma spoke about the entire controversy, explaining why he chose to side with Rajamouli. Maintaining that he, too, is an atheist like the Baahubali helmer, he likened Rajamouli’s reaction to Amitabh Bachchan’s outburst against the Shiva idol in Deewaar (1975).

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“The context there was, his entire work had gone and he was just expressing that. For me, it sounded like Amitabh Bachchan abusing god in Deewaar for all the sufferings happening in his life. I think what Rajamouli did was a minor version of that. Suddenly, everybody jumped in with, ‘How can he say something like that?’ I felt it was ridiculous, which is why I reacted. I also am not religious. I don’t believe in god. More than god, I don’t believe in devotees. I think many devotees believe in god without knowing why,” he said during an interview with Zoom.

Watch SCREEN’s exclusive interview with Ram Gopal Varma here:

Varma went one step further and called believers egoistic. He said, “I think people who believe in god are egoistic. To think that, despite being just one among the trillions of creatures god created, they will get special treatment if they believe in and pray to god is highly egoistic. What’s in your hands is what you are capable of. Don’t depend on an external power for that. I think that’s where my non-belief comes from.”