Ram Gopal Varma

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Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often known by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works mainly in Hindi and Telugu cinema. His debut, the Telugu crime thriller Siva (1989), is regarded as a path-breaking film, and he went on to become known for gritty, realistic films across many genres, especially crime. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of new-age Indian cinema and is known for introducing new talent who went on to succeed in the industry.

Early life

Varma was born in Hyderabad to Krishnam Raju Varma and Suryavathi. He went to St. Mary’s High School in Secunderabad and New Science College in Ameerpet, and earned a Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering from V. R. Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijayawada. He has said that in college he often skipped classes to watch films, replaying scenes to study their direction and camerawork.

Road to directing

After a short spell as a site engineer, he opened a video rental store in Ameerpet, where, by his own account, he studied what audiences liked by watching which films were rented most. The store also gave him connections to the film world; his father was a sound engineer at Annapurna Studios. He worked as an assistant director on Collector Gari Abbai and Rao Gari Illu, and Akkineni Nageswara Rao, impressed by him, gave him the chance to direct.

Siva and early Telugu films

Siva (1989), a trendsetting action film starring Nagarjuna, was a huge hit. It won Varma Nandi Awards for Best Direction and Best First Film of a Director, as well as the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Telugu, and it was later named in CNN-IBN’s list of the 100 greatest Indian films. Varma also introduced the Steadicam to Indian cinema with it. His next film, the neo-noir heist film Kshana Kshanam (1991), won him Nandi Awards for direction and screenplay, the political drama Gaayam (1993) received six Nandi Awards, and Prema Katha (1999) brought him a third Nandi Award for Best Director.

Hindi cinema and “Mumbai noir”

The Hindi remake Shiva (1990) was his first big Hindi hit, and the romantic comedy Rangeela (1995), starring Aamir Khan, won seven Filmfare Awards. Satya, the first part of his Indian Gangster Trilogy, has been described as an experiment in a variation of film noir called Mumbai noir, of which Varma is considered the master; it won him the Bimal Roy Award for Best Direction. The director Danny Boyle cited Satya and Company as influences on Slumdog Millionaire. He won a National Film Award for writing and producing the political crime drama Shool (1999). His political thriller Sarkar (2005) and its sequel Sarkar Raj screened at international festivals, and in 2010 the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland staged a retrospective of his work.

Docudramas and real events

In his later career Varma turned to dramatised versions of real events: factional violence in Rayalaseema in Rakta Charitra (2010), the 2008 Mumbai attacks in The Attacks of 26/11 (2013), which screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, the operation against Veerappan in Killing Veerappan (2016), the Vijayawada riots in Vangaveeti (2016), N. T. Rama Rao in Lakshmi’s NTR (2019), and the politics of the Konda family in Konda (2022).

Influences

Varma has named the novelist Ayn Rand and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as influences on his thinking, along with the thriller writers James Hadley Chase and Frederick Forsyth and Mad magazine.

Sources: Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Ram Gopal Varma: quick facts

• Full name: Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma, often called RGV (Wikipedia)
• Born: 7 April 1962 in Hyderabad, to Krishnam Raju Varma and Suryavathi (Filmibeat; Wikipedia)
• First film: Siva (1989), after starting out as a civil engineer (Wikipedia)
• Nandi Awards: Best Director and Best First Film of a Director for Siva (1989); Best Director and Best Screenplay Writer for Kshana Kshanam (1991); Best Director for Prema Katha (1999) (Wikipedia list; Wikipedia list; Wikipedia list)
• National Film Award: For producing the Hindi crime drama Shool (1999) (Wikipedia)
• Films in other languages: Much of his work is in Hindi: TMDB lists 72 non-Telugu films for him (TMDB).

More Ram Gopal Varma Telugu films listed on TMDB

These Telugu-language films are credited to Ram Gopal Varma on TMDB but are not yet part of the filmography table on this page. The credit column is TMDB’s own listing; check the film’s page for full details.