by Subhash K Jha

Demoniacally defiant and ready to rise to a challenge at any given excuse, Ram Gopal Varma has made an unprecedented decision.

"I'm going to remake James right away. And this time I'll direct it myself. It isn't an emotional decision. I feel I made some radical mistakes in the film. If rectified it hasthe potential of being a winner. We're starting on November 1. I hope to complete the film by the end of the year and release it early next year. It will be the next release from my production house."

It was review that galvanized Ramu into an action-replay.

"The critic said there was no inner conflict in Mohit's character. I agree."

Many of his detractors have dubbed the Mohit Ahlawat launch film James, released last month, to be the worst film from Ram Gopal Varma.

"That's a matter of perception. We tried to recreate the action genre from the Bachchan-Dharmendra era. We felt that the genre has been ignored. But I guess we got carried away by technical wizardry.It's easy to get carried away when you're working on 'avid' and you feel everything looks perfect. The content suffered in James."

"Some people say it's the worst film from my "factory'. That came as a blow. It was a project I really believed in.I feel I've betrayed the genre that I took on. I'm personally going to take care of it this time. I want to direct this film myself now."

The new version of James —to be launched within 2 months of the original!—will feature exactly the same cast and crew including of course the original leading lady Nisha Kothari and Ramu's blue-eyed boy Mohit.

Ramu admits the failure of James was a blow.

"If I fail to do my job it's natural I try to do it again. This time I'll rectify the errors in the first version. Mohit will be now projected more as the Angry Young Man of the 1970s that Mr Bachchan played. I feel the cut-off point for that genre was my own film Shiva and Raj Santoshi's films with Sunny Deol. These films had a strong content and message. James became just a comic-book version of those films. That's where it went wrong."

Ramu refuses to blame the James director Rohit Jugraj for the film's failure. "He executed James exactly the way I had visualized it. In fact he executed it better than it was on paper. This time James won't be a comicbook actioner. I want the audience to connect better with the content and the main character. Everybody from James will in my film again. Only the director will be different."

Ramu seems unnaturally mellow.

"I take the blame completely for the failure of James. I was busy with Sarkar and neglected James. The love story didn't work, neither did the action. I feel responsible for failing the action genre, and for Mohit's failure . I've never felt this way about any of my protégés. I still say Mohit is brilliant and I'll prove it. It isn't Mohit but the film that filed. Didn't audiences love Mallika Sherawat in Murder and hate her in Kiss Ki Kismat?"

Another audacious 'first' for Ram Gopal Varma!