God and Sex is inspired by Swami Nityanand escapades - Ram Gopal Varma

By Subhash K. Jha

With around 20 more days of shooting left for his bio-pic Rakta Charitra 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 God & Sex is a title that owes its background to the earlier film."

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

Smirks Ramu, "Vivek and I haven't been discussing Nityanand or the other god men 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 God men to gun-men is doing the same routine things."

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

Says Ramu, "It's amazing how powerful our country's god-men get in the corridors of power. Whether its 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 her's 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 god-men 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."

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