The SMS which shocked Ram Gopal Varma

COLLECTED BY: RISHI KAPOOR

Ram Gopal Varma has received innumerable text messages, all ridiculing and berating him for attempting to re-visit Sholay.

"The messages have been pretty vocal and direct about their dislike for what I've done. I've been called names and treated to the nastiest comments. But I've enjoyed the backlash, far more than people enjoyed Aag," laughs Ramu.

Here's the text that Ramu says changed his opinion on his right to remake his favourite film. (Parts of the message have been revised for coherence).

"Hi Sir. To call Aag a piece of junk would be demeaning junk. What happened to the colours of Rangeela and the grit of Satya? No clear story, meaningless script, obsession with dark lighting, weak screenplay, and songs that are too high-pitched and outdated. You were in a hurry while shooting. Fast editing, nonsensical expressions, no romance, horrifying background music and choreography, cinematography is horrid, bad clothes, bad hoardings, bad amateurish dialogues, bad characterizations with no emotional graph for the characters,leaving the actors free to ham,outdated action, emotionless scenes, no comedy, no colour. You should sit and watch your film alone. No freshness, carelessness in creativity.You've become over-confident and you are losing touch with reality. You're handing over creative work to the wrong people. You're impulsively doing ten films at a time and not focusing on one project. You've enjoyed the shooting without caring about what the outcome would be. You're busy giving stupid interviews. What have you done in the past seven years except a couple of notable films?"

Says Ramu, "The above message shook me completely. It made me realize it's time for me to do some serious re-thinking about my career."