Ram Gopal Varma unsure if Rajinikanth is a ‘good actor’

Ram Gopal Varma questions Rajinikanth's acting skills, categorizing him as a 'star' dependent on slow motion in films.

Is Indian film icon Rajinikanth as good an actor as he is a star? Ram Gopal Varma is undecided. In a recent interview to a portal, Varma, known for his provocative statements and takes, vacillated about Rajinikanth’s acting bonafides, categorising him as a ‘star’ who probably could not exist without ‘slow motion’. 

Making the distinction between an actor and a star, the Satya director told Pinkvilla: “Acting is about a character; a star is about a performance. And there is a lot of difference between the two. Is Rajinikanth a good actor? I don’t know. I don’t think Rajinikanth can do a Bhikhu Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee’s character in Satya). But with Rajinikanth, you only want to see him like that. Without slow motion, I don’t know if Rajinikanth can exist. You don’t mind seeing Rajinikanth walking in slow motion for half of the film without doing anything. It gives you a high.” 

Varma, it appears, wasn’t snubbing Rajinikanth but distinguishing his status in the mind of the cinema-going audience in India. Clubbing him with another megastar like Amitabh Bachchan, He further explained, “When a star plays a normal character, it can be disappointing.”

He cited a film scene where Amitabh Bachchan’s character gets a stomach ache, stating, “I used to hate that scene. I don’t want to see Amitabh Bachchan having a stomach ache. So you always look at them like demigods. Demigods can’t become characters.” 

Ram Gopal Varma recently clocked 25 years of Satya, his path-breaking Hindi gangster film that changed the course of Bollywood. His next, Syndicate, is also a crime saga set in the modern world.