Nearly three decades after their last collaboration, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has opened up about why he and Mani Ratnam never worked together again.
The answer is candid, and characteristically blunt.
Speaking on the podcast ‘MPower by Maathevan’, Varma revealed that while the two iconic directors may respect each other personally, they don’t particularly enjoy each other’s work.
“I’m not really a fan of ‘Nayakan’. Actually, Mani doesn’t like any of my films. I don’t like Mani’s films. That’s like our relationship,” said Ram Gopal Varma, putting to rest any lingering hopes of a reunion with Mani Ratnam.
The last time the duo joined creative forces was in the 1990s. They co-wrote two films—’Gaayam’ (1993) and ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ (1993)—and co-produced ‘Dil Se..’ (1998) alongside Shekhar Kapur. But despite these successful collaborations, the partnership ended there.
The reason? According to Varma, both filmmakers are simply too headstrong to share creative space again.
“Both of us are very strong-minded people. He’s got a very unique way of making films, and I have my own style. So two strong-minded creative people collaborating, I don’t think it can happen,” he explained.
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One of the focal points of Varma’s remarks was Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayakan’, a landmark film in Tamil cinema starring Kamal Haasan as an underworld don modeled after the real-life gangster Varadarajan Mudaliar.
Here is BEAUTY and the BEAST and the BEAST is ME pic.x.com/BRDhXfoN33
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 22, 2025
While many hail the film as a masterpiece, Varma isn’t entirely convinced. “There are moments I like. Kamal’s performance, all that is fine. But Mani didn’t influence me,” he said.
In fact, Varma believes his cinematic sensibilities were shaped by another Tamil great—K. Balachander. “Recently I was watching one of his films, Tamil or Telugu, I don’t remember. I was surprised to see how similar my cuts are. Obviously, because I learnt from him,” Varma said.
Balachander, a pioneering filmmaker in his own right, also produced Ratnam’s ‘Roja’ in 1993, showing just how intertwined the paths of these South Indian cinema giants once were.
The differences between Ratnam and Varma seem less about rivalry and more about creative autonomy. “We like each other as people,” Varma said. “I think we both wanted to make our own films. He didn’t listen to one idea of mine, and I didn’t listen to one idea of his. So we made our own films.”