EXCLUSIVE: “Aamir Khan felt betrayed and it was my fault,” says Ram Gopal Varma recalling the Rangeela controversy

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

May 14, 2021 - 9:36 AM IST

Twenty five years ago, Ram Gopal Varma made the super hit film Rangeela starring Aamir Khan, Jackie Shroff, and Urmila Matondkar. Even after all these years, the film is fresh in the memories of the audience. However, RGV and Aamir Khan never worked together after that. In an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Ram Gopal Varma spoke about why he and Aamir never worked after Rangeela and also addressed a controversy where he said that the actor who played a waiter in the film did better acting than Aamir Khan.

EXCLUSIVE: “Aamir Khan felt betrayed and it was my fault,” says Ram Gopal Varma recalling the Rangeela controversy

Talking about why he and Aamir never worked after Rangeela which was released in 1995, Varma said, “Aamir Khan is an extremely dedicated and passionate and very patient person, which I am not. I am a very impulsive guy, I want to see things happening now and Aamir wants to mull over it, which is good and works fantastic for him. But temperament wise we are very different and we didn't really have followed, it was a certain misunderstanding post Rangeela. I don't have any bad blood neither does he have. Temperamentally we are very different, it's not about the film per say. I am very impulsive which is my strength and weakness and he is very patient which is exactly the opposite of what I am.”

Years back, Varma had in an interview said that the actor who played the waiter in Rangeela did better than Aamir Khan in the scene. However, it became controversial back then. When asked if he has actually said that, Varma clarified, “I am clearing this for the thousandth time. Khalid Mohammed was interviewing me and I made a technical point. People don't understand how a performance works. I mentioned in the context if Aamir says the line ‘Tu idhar ghuma na'. Now the expression on the waiter is what makes people laugh. It's not the line. The line is written and Aamir said it flatly. But because so much laughter came we think it is Aamir's performance. If I did the wrong casting of the waiter who couldn't give a counted expression, the scene would have been flat.”

“It is a technical point I was telling Khalid Mohammed and Khalid had some issue with Aamir Khan because he was refusing to attend some Filmfare function or something like that. He wrote the headline that the waiter was better than Aamir, quoting me. And at that time because there were no cell phones, I was in the South somewhere shooting a Telugu film. Aamir tried contacting me and I was not available and he thought I was not getting in touch deliberately. It made him feel that I actually said it . So he said something else in the press. By the time I met him, he wanted me to say that Khalid lied. I said he didn't lie. It was my fault to expect Khalid Mohammed to understand the technical details of how a performance works in a scene. I said it. Either he deliberately did not or he didn't understand it, I don't want to get into that. I said, 'Aamir, the whole world has seen Rangeela and they loved it and that guy is in half a scene. Me saying that the waiter is better than you, in what way do you think it is going to make any difference. In fact it will come on me, because my saying that has not led to him signing for 100 films.’ But okay Aamir being a very sensitive and very good human being and at that point, what he himself was going through with the whole industry and Khalid Mohammed thing and all that, he felt betrayed and that's my fault.”