Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma took time off from finishing his Sholay extravaganza and planning the start of shooting (it's on July 4, in Hyderabad) for Sarkar 2, to talk to BT about his forthcoming films. This, in the manner of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather II, promises to be one of the most eagerly looked forward to films in Bollywood... if only because Varma has got Brand Bachchan together for the first time. Excerpts from an interview:

You're getting together Bollywood's first family for the first time...

Yes, but I didn't cast them as the first family. I signed Aishwarya long before she got involved with Abhishek. And they aren't a couple in Sarkar 2. Abhishek is already married to Tanisha in Sarkar, remember?

But the audience will look at the couple in a different way...

I disagree. Once the audience enters a theatre, it creates its own ambience in the first 10 minutes. Unless a film is designed to accentuate personal equations between actors, audiences forget what relationships actors share in real life. Sarkar 2 hasn't been written to play up the Abhishek-Aishwarya relationship.

Does Big B play a semi-retired character?

Yes. Sarkar ended showing the senior Bachchan in retirement. But in Sarkar 2, Abhishek isn't willing to take over the mantle. We pick up the story from there. Abhishek's character will be substantially more in the forefront. But like every son in a business empire, he'll continue to look up to his father for guidance and support.

Are you doing Sarkar 2 only because everyone other filmmaker is into sequels?

It was Abhishek's idea. We decided on Sarkar 2 even before the shooting for Sarkar was over. The characters seemed to tempt me enough to give them renewed life.

Didn't you feel this way about any of your other films, Satya for instance?

Most of my films are remakes of my own cinema. Satya was a remake of my Drohi, Bhoot was a remake of Raat. Obviously, the way the two sets of films were made was different. I've been tempted to do sequels quite often. But not Satya. Everyone died at the end of Satya. In Sarkar, the political family has immense scope to reinvent their lives. In Sarkar 2, I'll use whatever I left behind from Godfather 2 and 3 and Good Fellas.

But Sarkar wasn't The Godfather, it was more like a story of the Thackeray family...

Well, the father and son conflict was inspired by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. The Godfather was never about the mafia. It was a family drama.