New Delhi: Ram Gopal Varma is writing and co-producing Mohit Suri’s next film. The project will bring together the veteran filmmaker’s gritty gangster world and Suri’s signature romance-driven storytelling.
Varma shared a selfie with Suri on 13 September, announcing their collaboration. In his trademark style, he described the project as a “love dish full of gangster curry” and promised that more details would be “served” soon.
“Me and Saiyaara’s Mohit Suri for his NEXT film are COOKING together a LOVE DISH full of GANGSTER CURRY. Details to be SERVED VERY VERY SOON,” Varma posted on X.
The collaboration brings together two filmmakers known for very different cinematic styles. Varma redefined the crime genre with films such as Satya (1998), Company (2002) and Sarkar (2005). Suri, meanwhile, has built his reputation around intense romances and music-driven storytelling with films such as Woh Lamhe (2006), Awarapan (2007) and Aashiqui 2 (2013).
On Monday, Varma said that the collab is set during the split between underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, with the narrative revolving around a man named Sautya and the involvement of Indian intelligence agencies in the events that followed.
“For a story with this kind of a backdrop Mohit brought in a tremendous flair of his own brand of “from the heart characters, superlative emotional music and never before thought of ultra realistic action,” he wrote on X.
Drawing a comparison with Hollywood filmmakers, Varma shared that he had always wondered how it would be if Francis Ford Coppola directed Jaws (1975) or if Steven Spielberg directed Godfather (1972), adding that the contrast would be the point. He added that Suri’s “character mastery” was the commonality that made the collaboration work.
“After seeing his vision for what I wrote, I believe that Mohit’s film will be much larger in scale than DHURANDHAR, and much more rooted than SATYA in its heart,” Varma said.
Varma is also working on Police Company (2027), a crime drama starring Harshvardhan Rane in a character inspired by Daya Nayak, a Mumbai Police officer and encounter specialist known for his operations against organised crime. The film is produced by T-Series.
The film carries the tagline, “It’s more dangerous than D Company”. In an X post, Varma described the story as one set against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld, following the rise of Dawood Ibrahim’s D Company and his eventual fallout with his protégé Chhota Rajan.
“The system was completely failing to halt the gang activities, which in turn was attracting a lot of young men from places like U.P., M.P., Bihar, etc. to join the underworld companies,” Varma wrote.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)