Months away from his next release, and the man is courting controversy already. The newly-released promos of Ram Gopal Varma's much-hyped venture Rakta Charitra consist of expectedly bload-soaked and brutal visuals, and have gotten the filmmaker into trouble with the Human Rights Commission (HRC).
The HRC has reportedly written to the censor board to complain against Rakta Charitra, saying that the film was glorifying violence. Also, some of the movie's tag lines displayed as part of the promo quote the Mahabharata, inviting more ire from protesting voices, who are booing Varma's attempt to compare the story of factionists with the grand epic. There are also concerns about the movie maligning the image of Anantapur, where its story is set.
The Human Rights Commission has asked for a response to be given by the 28th of May.
Rakta Charitra is set to be an August release, and is a trilingual written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. It is being made in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. The story is said to portray the factionist tension between Paritala Ravi and Maddelacheruvu Suri. Vivek Oberoi is playing the role of the former, while Tamil superstar Surya is playing the role of the latter. Shatrughan Sinha plays the late NTR and Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Sudeep, Ashish Vidyarthi and Kota Srinivasa Rao are in other roles.
With Rakta Charitra, Ram Gopal Varma continues his practice of borrowing edgy stories from real life.
Company, for example, was loosely based on Dawood Ibrahim's underworld outfit, the D Company. For Rakta Charitra, Varma is known to have made visits to the families of the real-life protagonists of his script - including a visit to Maddelacheruvu Suri in jail.