Mumbai:

Are Indian film audiences ready for a hero who kills his screen wife, albeit accidentally? In his latest production, Ram Gopal Varma has cast Anil Kapoor as a man who accidentally bumps off his wife.

Varma had actually planned ‘My Wife’s Murder’ as a two-film release with two separate endings with Anil killing his wife accidentally in one and deliberately in the other! “Earlier we had another version of the same story where Anil actually and deliberately kills his nagging wife Suchitra Krishnamurthy. I planned to release ‘My Wife’s Murder’ as a two-film release called ‘Galti Se’ and ‘Jaan Boojh Kar’, giving the audiences two separate endings to go home with,” Varma told HNS.

But protests from women’s organisations in Hyderabad and other southern cities put an end to the plan. “I guess at the end of the day, no matter how radical and unconventional I may pretend to be, I want to make films for an audience, and I can’t go against what they want...and mind.” There have been many instances of protagonists as killers, but to snuff out an annoying spouse — played by Shekhar Kapur’s wife Suchitra wouldn’t be the ideal monsoon entertainer. Realising this, Varma Productions is giving the film a low-key release. Will “My Wife’s Murder” kick off a fuss among moralists? Chuckles Varma: “I’m no stranger to controversy. My ‘Bhoot’ caused palpitations among ghost-busters. ‘D’, they said, brought on a Dubai gangster’s threatening call to me and ‘Sarkar’ was supposed to be the life of (Shiv Sena supreme) Bal Thackeray. “But this is my only film that crystallises a very true yet unspecified social issue. What happens when spousal stress crosses all limits?”