Thirty years after its release, Ram Gopal Varma’s iconic Rangeela still enchants the audience with its blend of sweetness, sensuality and cinematic magic. The film has been restored in 4K and will be rereleased in India theatrically on October 10. We caught up with RGV to discuss his celebrated film, featuring Mili (Urmila Matondkar), Munna (Aamir Khan) and Raj Kamal (Jackie Shroff). Excerpts:

Around that time, Aamir’s films hadn’t worked. Urmila’s films also didn’t work. I am from the South, so no one really knew what to expect from this film. In fact, even the music was a new form. Rangeela’s songs didn’t sound like the hit film songs of that time. Whenever something new comes, people tend to get disoriented, but by the time the release came close, the music caught on.

Huge credit to writers Neeraj Vora and Sanjay Chhel. What really makes a film last is how unforgettable its characters are, because no matter how much time goes by, human emotions remain the same. With Munna (Aamir Khan), Mili (Urmila Matondkar) and Kamal (Jackie Shroff) still etched in our minds, the passage of time doesn’t matter anymore. The story of Rangeela will find appeal today or 30 years before it was made.

Cinematically, I would say my inspiration was the 1960s Hollywood musical, The Sound Of Music. Although it’s not the same story, Rangeela is also a love story where there’s no conflict at all. There is no antagonist either. Everyone is nice – Mili, Munna and Kamal. There’s not a single bad person, but the situation creates the conflict. I love the aspect that Rangeela is a sad kind of a story where your heart goes out to Aamir, but at the same time, you can’t really hate the other person either.

When you’re working together for a long time, and especially when a film becomes so successful, you tend to make the next film with the same actor.

Urmila can give versatile expressions, which I realized after seeing her in the song Hai Rama. That’s the reason I cast her in such a wide variety of films – a horror film like Bhoot, the gangster film Satya and a caper like Daud. I made Rangeela because of her. Why I wanted to make Rangeela was because I felt inspired seeing a song of hers in my Telugu film (Drohi with Nagarjuna). The origin of Rangeela stemmed from my desire to showcase Urmila’s sensuality and her beauty. She had never worn such revealing clothes in the films she had done before that, but I told her, if you feel beautiful about your body, you shouldn’t be conscious. That bindaas attitude, the fact that she’s not aware of herself, and the fact that she’s not intending to create an effect on somebody else created a wild, animal-like, exotic feeling in the audience. The most memorable aspect of Rangeela was to look at Urmila through the camera.

When I heard the songs of Roja, I was blown away. The kind of new sound, packaging and production that Rahman created was something no one had ever heard. It was inspiring for me to capture that visually. When the music is generic, everyone from the choreographer to the actor comes up with a predictable output, but because it was so unpredictable that no one had a choice but to reinvent themselves.

For any young actor, working with seasoned artistes is a humbling experience. No wonder, debutante Payal Ghosh was overwhelmed while shooting her first film, Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi, with veteran actors Rishi Kapoor, Paresh Rawal and Prem Chopra. The final schedule of the cross-cultural comedy, which also features Vir Das, recently wrapped up. Talking about her experience of working in the film, Payal says, “I had always dreamt of a Bollywood debut like this. I wanted to play a simple, girl-next-door as I believe the audience relates to such characters easily.“

She adds that she had newfound respect for Kapoor and Rawal after interacting with them off screen. The actress elaborates, “Pareshji plays my father in the movie. So every interaction with him, both on and off screen was like having a long chat with my real father. I share a lovely rapport with him. Rishiji is immensely caring and brutally honest. If he doesn't like my make-up, he will say, 'Yaar yeh make-up jach nahin raha hain'. If he thinks I'm not performing well in a scene, he will ask me to improvise.“

Ask Payal about Vir and she exclaims, “He is effortlessly funny. He is observant and draws his humour by noticing people and their quirks.“

The actress is hopeful that Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi will leave the audience in splits. “It's about bhangra versus garba and dhokla versus tikkas. Writer-director Sanjay Chhel has whipped up a funny tale about contrasting cultures and all of us are proud of it,“ she signs off.