"'Sholay' would be made at all costs even if Gods ask me not to make it".
"There is going to be 'Sarkar II' soon".
"A commitment is in place for making one more film with Big B when works gets over on the projects underway".
These are some of the many announcements by Ram Gopal Verma in last few months when quizzed about his plans for films starring Amitabh Bachchan. In addition one keeps hearing about some of his other projects with others actors [e.g.: Fardeen Khan-Esha Deol-Isha Kopikar starrer 'Darling'] every now and then. Amidst all this important piece of information, one can't help but ask one question - "What happens to a film for which the shooting is completed and is ready for release?" And by the way this one stars Amitabh Bachchan too!
We are talking about 'Nishabd'!
Right from the inception stage the movie was in news. Whether it was the 'bold' theme of the film, acceptance-denial-acceptance cycle of apparent source being 'Lolita', introduction of hot'n'bold'spicy Zia Khan as the teen female lead, snippets distribution into the media, interviews from the cast and crew to an eventual completion in record time - just about everything about the film kept it in news till about a couple of months back.
And since then there has been an absolute silence. In fact all one hears is 'Ramg Gopal Verma Ke Sholay', it's casting hassles, date hassles, production hassles, copyright hassles, Big B's looks being unveiled, his scorpion stick being an item in itself, actors coming in and going out and so on and so forth.
What one doesn't hear about is 'Nishabd' that was supposed to have already arrived by now!
So what has happened wrong? Or is there something really wrong? No one knows! But what one knows is that suddenly the project has been kept out of news completely with no sound bytes to the media about its progress.
And guess what, we have not yet talked about 'Go' and 'Shabri' which made quite some news when launched and were followed by promos/stills feed to the media while mid-way into the shoot. Starring Nisha Kothari and Isha Kopikar in the lead respectively, these films seem to have gone further down the priority list of RGV with his current fascination of 'Sholay' remake consuming most of his energy.
One wishes that the wait proves to be worth it with RGV coming out with flying colors with his 'Sholay' remake. After all, there is a definite element of trust that one has lost since subjected to his last release 'Shiva'.
For his and his audience sake, one expects the master storyteller to strike back in a style, come up with a winning stroke, revive all his films that have been lying down for a life to be breathed into them and then start his productions afresh by bringing on the variety that he has been famous for around a decade now!
