Recently, we reported about Ram Gopal Varma being expected to attend a special screening of his 1990 film Shiva at Red Lorry Film Festival. As expected, the filmmaker attended the event and shared his thoughts on the classic film, starring Nagarjuna, Raghuvaran, and Amala.

At the festival, he said that what drove him to make Shiva was his desire to create and experience a movie that he had not watched until then. "In making the film, probably because I was not experienced, I had never spent time in the industry and I just had this feeling, I want to make a film which is what I want to see. I think that is the nearest to true expression," Ram Gopal Varma said. That said, he candidly admitted that it is an inspired film and not a wholly original movie. "It is not like a completely original film. I had many influences, including from real life incidents and some people I knew," he added.

Interestingly, the revelation from the filmmaker is that he only watched the movie in the recent past. “A very surprising thing is I only saw the film after 35 years after its release, roughly in November, six months back, because we were trying to restore it. I reviewed the audio and the whole soundtrack and that is the first time I saw it,” the filmmaker revealed.

He also gave insights into the making of the film from a technical point of view. "I happened to be the first cameraman in India to use a Steadicam camera. And within a year of Shiva release, more than 20 Steadicams were imported because of the demand,” Varma stated.

Varma also delved into the now-popular cycle chain sequence in the movie.  “The most obvious thing is the cycle. Once I thought about it, everybody loved the idea,” the filmmaker shared, while noting he wanted a weapon to be created for the character from a naturally available element from the environment.

The writer-director also said that he was not afraid to experiment, as it came to him by nature.

In addition to Shiva, the filmmaker spoke about Dhurandhar at the festival, calling it the best movie he has seen in the past 20 years.