RGV shares candid photo of Urmila Matondkar, says she was ‘unable to deal with’ post-Rangeela stardom

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma, also known as RGV, on Saturday shared a throwback picture of actor Urmila Matondkar after the release of their 1995 film Rangeela. He said that she was ‘blushing’ in the photo as she was ‘unable to deal with her newfound super stardom’. The film, which featured Urmila in the role, was directed and produced by Ram Gopal Varma.

Taking to Twitter, he dropped the black-and-white picture which was clicked on the sets of Satya. He tweeted, “Unable to deal with her new found super stardom post RANGEELA a blushing @UrmilaMatondkar caught on the Baara chawl location of SATYA.”

Several users commented on the post. A Twitter user wrote, “90s to 2000s incomplete without her. Looking back, she made such phenomenal choices. Always remain in awe of her. Super actor.” Another said, “Amazing actress .. respect for her work..” A third replied, “Old pics are beautiful.”

Ram Gopal Varma has worked with Urmila in several movies including Satya and Bhoot, considered among her best performances. Recently, he admitted to being bothered by actor Kangana Ranaut’s jibe against Urmila last year. Kangana had called Urmila a ‘soft porn star’ who is ‘not known for her acting, for sure’.

In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Ram Gopal Varma emphasised the importance of freedom of speech and said, “…I would like to believe that it is in distaste and in the context of my personal feelings about Urmila, about her performance, about whatever she said. Now, that is Kangana’s viewpoint, so I didn’t say anything about Kangana saying it. As a director, I gave my feeling about how versatile an actor Urmila is.”

After Kangana’s remark on Urmila, RGV had tweeted, “Not wanting to get into slanging matches with anyone, I believe that @UrmilaMatondkar has more than proved her versatile talent in enacting such diversely complex roles as in RANGEELA, SATYA, KAUN, BHOOT, EK HASEENA THI etc.”

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Meanwhile, Urmila’s last major Hindi release was EMI (2008), 13 years ago. She was all set to star in a web show, but the project was stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “In April 2020, I was supposed to start work on a fabulous web series, but this (lockdown) happened, and then it got postponed. We didn’t know what’s happening, and it got further pushed. Right now, it’s stuck with one permission issue with a certain ministry. I’m just hoping that it will get cleared,” the 47-year-old had told Hindustan Times in March this year.