In 1989, RGV created a sensation with his debut film Shiva, which made us split Telugu cinema into two periods – Pre-Shiva and Post-Shiva.
Starting Shiva, till 1998, director Varma’s career had been a virtually unbroken string of hits with only few sporadic hiccups. There is no rule that every film of RGV must see the same result of Shiva. But the hogwash publicity by the director to gain market for the movie is not the right way. Though he donned the roles of producer and co-producer in the early times, he had never gone for notorious publicity.
But in the recent times, the loose cannon film-maker turned as the prodigal child of controversies and demonizing publicity - May be in tinkering the National Anthem (Rann), May be in picking a story which reads Mumbai blasts (The Attacks of 26/11), May be in showcasing the bloodshed story of real-life factionists (Rakta Charitra), May be in announcing a story which revolves around the rowdy wars of Vijayawada (Bejawada), RGV has always re-defined the word ‘publicity’. That is what he reflected in a song from his film KSD Appalraju: ‘Publicity... Idhi Cinema Valla Activity... Audience Jebulu Dongilinche Creativity…’
But this time, RGV has initiated a newfangled stunt to bring in the hype for his already-released film, Satya 2. The director’s complaint against censor board officer Dhanalakshmi has become the talk of the tinsel town and he was able to successfully grip the support of many other TFI members. Despite the negative talk for Satya 2, Varma has gone for a post-release publicity with this odd gimmick.
You might be thinking: “What a change in RGV?” Back in the 90’s, he was the master in film-making and now he is dying to score a hit at box office. This is merely RGV’s fault and no one has to be blamed for it.
The big questions to be answered now: Will he bounce back? Will he alter himself? Can he make movies that make sense? But before we get answers to our questions, RGV will come up with yet another movie in this short gap and our audience will apparently get preoccupied with his next publicity stunt.
Thinking, arguing and discussing about RGV is like revolving around Earth - we start and end at the same point.