Veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma seems determined to outdo everyone in celebrating Mohanlal’s Dadasaheb Phalke Award win. Days after cheekily declaring that “Dadasaheb Phalke should be given the Mohanlal Award” in a congratulatory tweet on X (formerly Twitter), the Satya director is back with another dramatic suggestion. “Now that Mohanlal has been conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, isn’t it apt that Mohanlal should play Dadasaheb Phalke in his biopic,” RGV wrote, sparking another round of reactions online.

Fans were quick to join the fun. One user quipped: “These past couple of days feel like an epic battle between fans and celebs over who’s the biggest Lalettan admirer. Looks like RGV isn’t planning to lose this one.” Mohanlal, who became only the second person from Kerala to receive Indian cinema’s highest recognition after Adoor Gopalakrishnan in 2004, has been flooded with tributes from across the industry.

RGV’s playful tweets stand out for their mix of irreverence and genuine admiration, also reflecting his long friendship with Mohanlal since their collaboration on the 2002 crime drama Company. Earlier, asked about the RGV's initial tweet at a press conference in Kochi on Sunday, Mohanlal chuckled it off, saying, “He is someone who cracks jokes all the time. I see it as black humour."

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, better known as Dadasaheb Phalke, is revered as the Father of Indian cinema. His landmark debut Raja Harishchandra (1913) is recognised as India’s first full-length feature film. Over a 19-year career, he made 94 features and 27 shorts, including classics such as Lanka Dahan and Kaliya Mardan. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, instituted in his honour in 1969, remains the nation’s highest film accolade.

The 2009 Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory traced Dadasaheb Phalke's struggles and was even India’s official Oscar entry. More recently, Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani were expected to collaborate on a Phalke biopic, but the project has reportedly been put on hold after Aamir felt the script needed more of the filmmaker’s trademark humour and drama.

Meanwhile, Ram Gopal Varma is currently filming a horror-comedy titled Police Station Mein Bhoot, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Genelia Deshmukh in the lead.