Shyam Gopal Varma ke cockroach

Hyderabad : Even as `Eega’, a Telugu-Tamil-Malayalam film that has a housefly as the protagonist, is set for release this Friday, director Shyam Gopal Varma has decided to do one better with a tale of two cockroaches. Varma disclosed that it will be a revenge tale, with lot of action scenes and the Varma staple diet of blood and gore.

“It will be the tale of two cockroaches who get separated at birth. One becomes an upright cockroach who moves around in high society homes while the other is a gutter ka cockroach, the leader of that underworld, literally. Their clash forms the crux of my film,” Varma said.

Like `Eega’, `Cockroach’ too will be part real, part animation. But unlike the former, that has studios in London, Russia and the US working on the elaborate special effects, Varma has developed a technique using old-world VHS video cameras that he claims will revolutionise filmmaking. “All the shooting will be done with hand-held cameras with close-up angles showing the cockroaches from different never-seen-before sexy angles,” explained Varma.

The filmmaker, whose last few films have been box-office duds, is in talks with a prominent Bollywood actor to play the role of the underworld cockroach’s godfather. However, Tenali Rama has learnt that most female actors have refused to do this film, as they are scared of cockroaches.

Not to be perturbed, Varma has signed an Yugoslavian actress to perform an item number in the film. “She is a cockroach who transforms into a human being in a dream sequence item number. Watch out for this girl, she will go places,” Varma predicted.

Asked why he was doing a cockroach film, so close on the heels of a housefly film, Varma said he always wanted to make a film on cockroaches. “You see, we are all cockroaches. We all feed on food and are all over the place. And like cockroaches, we too get killed mercilessly.”