Ram Gopal Varma as an Auteur

This article examines various aspects of Ram Gopal Varma’s films in order to assess his contribution to Indian cinema as an auteur. Varma’s films are critically analyzed through the tenets of authorship and control over a film, auteur sign or brand, consistent visual style in film production that comprise the main discussion among auteur critics. This article also attempts to analyze Varma’s work as a director, from Shiva to Sarkar, that have significantly pushed the borders of the Bollywood formula. Varma’s films are not studied with any prior assumption to prove him an auteur but to analyze his works within the French and American auteur theoretical framework. While probing into the arguments of the auteur theorists for its basic tenets, various features of auteur theory are clearly seen in his films in terms of personal vision, style, expression and treatment, narration and technique (especially photography, screenplay and characterization), the interconnecting plots and the way the various issues are dealt with.