Last Updated:December 05, 2025, 17:00 IST

Ram Gopal Varma reacts to link-up rumours with Urmila Matondkar, calling her “the most versatile actress,” and defends his Sridevi comment in a new interview.

Ram Gopal Varma has finally addressed long-standing rumours linking him to actor Urmila Matondkar, saying he chose to work with her repeatedly because she is “the most versatile actress.”

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has never been a stranger to controversy, nor has he ever attempted to sidestep it. Now, in the middle of renewed conversations about the objectification of women in cinema, the director has offered a characteristically provocative defence of his past statements — including his infamous remark about Sridevi — while addressing long-standing speculation about his association with Urmila Matondkar.

On Urmila Matondkar and the narratives built around them

Speaking to Zoom TV, Ram Gopal Varma dismissed the persistent rumours and “myth-making” that have surrounded his professional relationship with Urmila since the 1990s. Their collaborations — Rangeela, Daud, Satya, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya — helped define an era of Hindi cinema, transforming Urmila into a cultural phenomenon and showcasing RGV’s instinct for creating vivid, complex female characters.

“I think she is the most versatile actress — that is why I have worked with her in so many movies,” he said. “I have worked with Amitabh Bachchan more, but nobody talks about it.”

He suggested that the chatter around him and Urmila was less about reality and more about the “system” of whispers and assumptions that the internet amplifies.

On the ‘objectification’ debate and his Sridevi remark

Asked yet again about calling Sridevi “thunder thighs,” RGV refused to accept the term as objectification.

“I don’t think it is objectification,” he said. “When I said ‘Thunder Thighs’ about Sridevi, I believe they are her assets apart from her talent. That is unique about her. Calling it objectification is objectifying my comment.”

His admiration for Sridevi has been well-documented; he has often cited her as a major artistic influence. Their 1991 Telugu thriller Kshana Kshanam remains one of his most beloved works. In the film, Sridevi played Satya, an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary danger — a performance Varma has repeatedly praised for its charm, physicality, and timing.

The movie followed Satya’s misadventures after she unintentionally becomes entangled in a robbery gone wrong, teaming up with a thief played by Venkatesh as they navigate danger with equal parts suspense and humour. Over the years, RGV has credited the film, and Sridevi, with reshaping his cinematic sensibilities.

Looking ahead: RGV returns to horror

Even as discussions around his past statements continue to swirl, Ram Gopal Varma is already deep into his next venture — a return to the horror genre that once elevated him to cult status.

His upcoming film, Police Station Main Bhoot, stars Manoj Bajpayee and is set entirely within the suffocating confines of a police station. The project marks their reunion after 27 years and is expected to revisit the psychological tension and dread that defined Bhoot, one of RGV’s most acclaimed works.

Exploring a “claustrophobic, pressure-cooker style of storytelling,” the director appears keen on reviving the atmospheric terror that once made him a genre pioneer.

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