While writing about Ram Gopal Varma, you can't help but feel a tinge of sadness. Here was a director who was once hailed a visionary filmmaker in the '90s thanks to the fine films he made then in Shiva, Satya, Rangeela and Kaun. As the country entered the 21st century, the quality of his films began to taper though there were still gems like Company and Sarkar. But after his attempt to remake Sholay, RGV had love lost with his fans. This was a director who got lost in his own genius, and is now a pale shadow of what could have been our answer to Martin Scorsese. Ram Gopal Varma Birthday Special: 10 Brilliant Films The Unorthodox Director Has Given To Bollywood Cinema.

But let's talk about the happier times when RGV was a huge brand in himself, when the big stars wanted to work with him. Not only did the biggies wanted to be in the movies that he directed, but also in the movies he produced too. Remember Darna Mana Hai and its sequel, Darna Zaroori Hai?

And if things would have worked the way they had planned, we would have had a film about time travel that would have starred Shah Rukh Khan and directed by RGV! After the success of Sarkar in 2005, RGV's brand-value had skyrocketed and there was a huge grapevine going on that he would direct SRK in a sci-fi film that was to be produced under Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt Ltd. The film was to be called Time Machine, and Kareena Kapoor Khan was to be playing the female lead in the movie.

So what happened then? Ram Gopal Varma isn't an easy filmmaker to work with (ask Aamir Khan) and soon SRK and RGV had a fallout, though we get different versions to hear of it.

According to one version, Shah Rukh Khan didn't like the fact that RGV trolled his dear friend Karan Johar's film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (in which SRK played a lead), calling it a 'horror movie'. This had led to a Twitter spat between Karan and Varma, with Khan supporting his friend and parting ways with Varma. Ram Gopal Varma Gets Trolled Yet Again; This Time for Lighting Cigarette Instead of Candle or Diya during #9PM9Minute Activity on April 5.

RGV, however, had a different story to say. In an interview to IANS in 2006, RGV confirmed that he is no longer doing the film with King Khan. This was the reason he had to give, "I saw no reason to go ahead with the Shah Rukh Khan project. His youthful exuberant image just didn't go with the dark brooding intensity of the cinema that I believe in. I felt the kind of cinema I make is incompatible with Shah Rukh's image."

He further added, "Deep down inside I wasn't comfortable with the idea of directing Shah Rukh. I just love larger-than-life characters and issues. I wasn't comfortable cutting my capabilities down to the size that audiences would expect if Shah Rukh is in a picture.

To put eight-nine months of my time and a sizeable budget in a project where my heart wasn't completely in it seemed to make no sense."

Interestingly, the film he ditched Time Machine for in his fan-devotion to Amitabh Bachchan was Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, a movie that was singularly responsible for the downslide of RGV's directorial career in Bollywood.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2020 03:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).