Ram Gopal Varma Reveals Bruce Lee’s Film Was Inspiration For Nagarjuna Starrer Shiva

Renowned filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has not tasted success for a long period of time. Varma who gave us classics like Satya, Shiva and Company lost his mojo in the last decade. Talking about those times, one cannot miss the iconic Nagarjuna-starrer Shiva, a film that created a revolution.

One of the first movies to depict the nexus between organized crime and college politics, Shiva was a runaway success receiving wide acclaim. Released in 1989, the Telugu film was remade by Varma in Hindi the next year as Shiva with much of the cast and crew being retained. A major boost to Varma’s career, Sihva has aged like fine wine and is still relatable today. The director has now come up with some interesting trivia about the film.

Ram Gopal Varma has long acknowledged his fascination with martial arts and martial arts movies. He is currently on the verge of releasing the a woman oriented martial arts film Ladki: Enter the Girl Dragon, an obvious reference to the Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. During a promotional event of the film, Ram Gopal Varma made revelation that Shiva was also inspired by a Bruce-Lee starrer.

In 1972, Bruce Lee had made a film called Way of the Dragon starring himself, which tells the story of a young man protecting a restaurant from thugs and goons. Varma said he wrote the script of Shiva, adapting the story of Way of the Dragon, while replacing the backdrop of a restaurant to that of a college.

Ladki: Enter the Girl Dragon stars newcomer Pooja Bhalekar as a martial arts expert and the movie is slated to release in China as well.