Vivek & I've not been discussing Nityanand's sex life

By Subhash K Jha

With around 20 more days of shooting left for his bio-pic Rakta Chatritra on the life of the outlaw-politician Paritala Ravi, Ram Gopal Varma is already thinking of his next film.

And what better fodder for filming than the allegedly lurid life of Swami Nityanand?

Ramu doesn't deny that the film's title God & Sex comes in the wake of Dibakar Banerjee's Love Sex Aur Dokha. Says Ramu, “I won't deny that the word sex in a Hindi-film title seemed impossible before Love Sex Aur Dhokha. So to that extent, yes Sex & God is a title that owes its background to the earlier film.”

The film would be inspired by the Swamni Nrityanand sex scandal. But it isn't prompted by Vivek Oberoi, a selfconfessed devotee of the Swami and Ramu's close friend currently working in Rakta Charitra.

Smirks Ramu, “Vivek and I haven't been discussing Nrityanand or the other godmen and their sex lives. But I can't deny God & Sex is inspired by the Swami's escapades. But it's not his sexcapades that intrigue me.

It's an image that I saw in the video of the Swami watching Hindi film songs on television. It just struck me that behind closed doors everyone from Godman to gun-man is the same doing routine things.”

Though the film will be called God & Sex it won't only be about godmen and sex scandals.

Says Ramu, “It's amazing how powerful our country's godmen get in the corridors of power. Whether it's politics or sex people like Chandraswami and Nityanand exude power and command a mass following.

I remember my aunt had gone to a prayer meeting for Satya Sai Baba. She came back and put up a large photograph of the man. I asked her what prompted her to do so, was she that impressed by his ideas?

She said she couldn't follow a word of what he said. 'But so many people can't be wrong' That statement of hers stuck. These god-men generate mass hysteria because they are seen as a direct link with divinity.

They are able to cash in on the gullibility vulnerability and insecurities of the people because we live in desperate times and we need to have some faith to cling to.”

God & Sex won't have a lot of sex in it. “How do these godmen manage to get so many women and girls interested in them? My film will dwell on that aspect. But it won't be a sleazy look at their world.”