Vishakhapatnam has great potential to be an alternate film hub

Director-producer Ram Gopal Varma says that the two songs he shot in Vizag for his film Gayamare still rated the most visually beautiful songs of his career. “Till today, the two songs I shot forGayam – ‘Alupannadhi vundha’ with Revathy and ‘Cheli meedha’ with Urmila (Matondkar) – are rated as two of the most visually beautiful songs of my career,” he says. The director, who was in Vizag to shoot some scenes of his upcoming filmKilling Veerappan, shared his views on his films and Vizag’s potential as a film hub with MetroPlusover an emailed interview.

With its natural locations, Vizag has been one of the favourite shooting destinations of filmmakers. Years ago, legendary director K. Balachander had immortalised the natural beauty of the pristine beaches of Visakhapatnam, red sand dunes near R.K. Beach, historical monuments at Bheemunipatnam and scenic beauty of Gangavaram by capturing them on celluloid with his blockbuster film Maro Charitraand many others. In the recent past, since the opening of Rama Naidu Studio in Vizag in 2008, 46 Telugu films, 22 Bengali, 15 Oriya, six Tamil, five Hindi and one Nigerian film have been made at the studio.

“Visually and in every which way, Vizag has the potential to grow as an alternate film industry hub. But I am not sure of the logistics from the Hyderabad perspective. But with today’s technology for any one place to be developed as a film industry is an outdated thinking,” says Varma.

While his last few films such as Ice Cream and Ankusham failed to make much of an impact at the box office, Varma is now gearing up for his ambitious project Killing Veerappan which is due for release in November. “Killing Veerappan is about the operation which actually led to Veerappan’s death. The film doesn’t get into the past and the growth of Veerappan. I read books on him and saw films made on him but the material I gathered from unnameable sources is what made me truly excited,” says the filmmaker.

Apart from this, he also has an upcoming Telugu action thriller film Attack lined up for release soon.

Known for films that portray the dark, sinister side of life, Varma says that he has a natural affinity for dark and larger than life characters. “Simple every day people bore me to death,” he says.