Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, justifying the bold scenes in the trailer of his debut web series ‘Guns And Thighs’, says they are not purely intended to titillate the audience.
Asked if the trailer, which has drawn attention, was a well-planned strategy to titillate, Varma told IANS here: “Titillating is a very relative world. At times, a character or a situation can titillate someone to watch the show. So you cannot specify what exactly is the element of titillation in the viewers’ mind. Yes, the story of the web series has age restrictions, as it is adult content, but when an audience is clicking on the link to watch an episode, from the name itself they get an idea of the subject matter. Therefore, there is no element of surprise.”
Varma pointed out how “anything that is restricted to adults is either violence or sex”.
“In fact, that is the rule of our censor board as well. My point is, we are living in a world with people of different choices and sensibilities, where if you, as an individual, do not want to watch something, don’t watch it, but don’t force others to do the same. Let them celebrate their choice as well. That is what freedom of choice and expression is about.”
Explaining the title, he said: “You see, guns and thighs are the symbols of power and sex. In politics, mostly, radical decisions are taken under the influence of power and sex.
The National Award-winning filmmaker is exploring the digital platform for the first time, and sees its advantages. “More than anything else, it is the creative freedom that we get on web series. There is no time limit of two hours that I have to compress my thought, keeping the interval and duration of a film in mind. I have also taken liberty on that.”