Highlights
- Ram Gopal Varma has defended his controversial decision to make a film offer to convicted Kannada actress Maria Susairaj, tweeting: "If someone has been convicted and the person served a given sentence she has a right to start her life afresh and that's a part of civilized society."
- The filmmaker has also lodged a complaint with the Versova police station against the BJP Yuva Morcha, who had sent a letter warning the director not to cast Maria Susairaj in his next film. "Just lodged a complaint with the Versova police against the BJP yuva morchas threat to me on the Maria Susairaj issue. Other organizations warnings I got to hear from the media but the BJP sent a signed warning letter directly to my office," RGV posted on his Twitter account.
- Susairaj was convicted last week by the Sessions court for destruction of evidence in the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case. The General Secretary of the Mumbai BJP Youth Wing, Amit Satam, had warned filmmakers and TV channels against casting Maria in any of their ventures. Ram Gopal Varma was the only filmmaker who publicly spoke of offering the starlet a role.
- RGV further tweeted:
- “Maria is not my sister or my girl friend and I don't evn know her... So it's not about supporting her but about standing for my beliefs. Even after court gave its judgement, if even the least informed people are raising so much noise doesn't it come under contempt of court? Public opinion is fine but isn't there a difference between opinion and an informed opinion? And who can be more informed than the judge? And if people feel that the investigating team and the judge are wrong why are they only singling out Maria? For all I know, Maria can be a killer or maybe even a serial killer but shouldn't there be an accepted way to find that out in a civil society?”
Ram Gopal Varma has defended his controversial decision to make a film offer to convicted Kannada actress Maria Susairaj, tweeting: "If someone has been convicted and the person served a given sentence she has a right to start her life afresh and that's a part of civilized society."
The filmmaker has also lodged a complaint with the Versova police station against the BJP Yuva Morcha, who had sent a letter warning the director not to cast Maria Susairaj in his next film. "Just lodged a complaint with the Versova police against the BJP yuva morchas threat to me on the Maria Susairaj issue. Other organizations warnings I got to hear from the media but the BJP sent a signed warning letter directly to my office," RGV posted on his Twitter account.
Susairaj was convicted last week by the Sessions court for destruction of evidence in the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case. The General Secretary of the Mumbai BJP Youth Wing, Amit Satam, had warned filmmakers and TV channels against casting Maria in any of their ventures. Ram Gopal Varma was the only filmmaker who publicly spoke of offering the starlet a role.
RGV further tweeted:
"Maria is not my sister or my girl friend and I don't evn know her... So it's not about supporting her but about standing for my beliefs. Even after court gave its judgement, if even the least informed people are raising so much noise doesn't it come under contempt of court? Public opinion is fine but isn't there a difference between opinion and an informed opinion? And who can be more informed than the judge? And if people feel that the investigating team and the judge are wrong why are they only singling out Maria? For all I know, Maria can be a killer or maybe even a serial killer but shouldn't there be an accepted way to find that out in a civil society?"
RGV tweeted his controversial off to Maria soon after the actress was released from jail. His new film,
Not A Love Story, is also based on Neeraj Grover's killing by Maria and her fiancée Emile Jerome Mathew.
RGV was slammed by other filmmakers for allegedly using the Neeraj Grover case to promote his upcoming film.