Straight TALK

Ram Gopal Varma on why he decided to make Not A Love Story,a film inspired by the Neeraj Grover murder case.

Ram Gopal Varma on why he decided to make Not A Love Story,a film inspired by the Neeraj Grover murder case.

Could be a mere coincidence,but Ram Gopal Varma revealed the first look of Not A Love Story inspired by the Neeraj Grover murder case,on the day the court was to give the verdict. Whats more,he fielded the most difficult questions about his controversial film with wit. I am not part of the judiciary to know on which day the verdict was to come out. And anyway the film’s launch was planned a month in advance, he said candidly.

The director looked cool and calm as he elaborated about the film’s plot,making it clear that it was not based on the real-life murder case. If it was based on the film,the incidents and facts of the film would be true,but it is not so. My film is just inspired from a true story and several incidents in the film are fictional, said the director.

Varma however conceded that he couldn’t hide his fascination for the case when he read about it three years ago,and said that he was trying to project the psychological aspect of the incident. Two points attracted me to the story. One that Maria Susairaj was a struggling actress and the fact that all the characters were ordinary persons like you and me,who in a moment of madness went berserk. They killed a man,cut up his body into pieces and had sex while it lay there,before packing it into shopping-bags to destroy the evidence. As a filmmaker I wanted to know the emotional state of their minds and portray it on screen, he said.

Asked if he had met Maria Susairaj and Emile Jerome,the two accused,the filmmaker said that he did not meet anyone directly related to the case as he did not want to get influenced by anything that was happening at that point of time. I would like to meet them both after the film is released though. I even want to have a special screening for both of them, he said.

That the case is about a brutal murder and a gory disposal of the body did not deter Varma from making the film. This incident happened in a city and in an apartment where hundreds of people like you and I live. The fact that something like this can happen in your neighbour’s flat,reminds us about the kind of demons there are among us. To ignore it and turn the page would be a mistake. Instead we should try to understand what could have caused it,which would lead us to understand our society better, he clarified.

He also added that it was not his intention be preachy. As a filmmaker,my intention is to reflect what happens in society whether its something criminal or political,so that we can do something to prevent it from happening again.