RGV Pens An Emotional Content On Bruce Lee On His Birth Anniversary!

Ram Gopal Varma Ram Gopal Varma is a famed Indian film director an >> Read More... , the popular director, who had met a lot of controversies has directed a film on martial arts. The film has been titled, Enter The Girl Dragon. This film is a dedication to the martial arts King, Bruce Lee Bruce Lee, a true legend and a philosopher, was an >> Read More... on his birth anniversary, today. Ram Gopal Varma stated that he had watched Enter the Dragon, 17 times and Return of the Dragon, 23 times. RGV planned to release the teaser of Enter The Girl Dragon at 3:12 pm, the birth time of Bruce Lee. The film is an Indo-Chinese production. This is the Facebook post by RGV on Bruce Lee:

“BRUCE LEE PUNCHED ME

When I heard that a new film called “Enter the Dragon” was coming out starring a new actor called Bruce Lee, I never heard of the word Karate or Kung Fu before that.But when I finally got to see the film Bruce Lee just blew me away or shall I say kicked me away.

To say that I was awestruck and mesmerized by him will be an understatement. I used to cycle all the way to a theatre 7 km away and I saw “Enter the Dragon” 17 times and after that his subsequent film “Return of the Dragon” 23 times .

I was obsessed about knowing of him and knowing about him to the smallest and minutest detail possible.

I always felt that if Bruce Lee was 6 inches taller he would not have become the legend he was. Its because he was just 5’7” and so small built that everybody and anybody could aspire to become like him. Nobody could have aspired to be a 6’2” heavyweight boxer like a Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali’s real name was Cassius Marcellus Cla >> Read More... or a Joe Frazier.

That’s because they look almost unreal and hence unreachable whereas an average guy will be the size of Bruce Lee which explains the rush of millions of people across the world to join Martial Arts schools of which I too was one.

Bruce Lee was a dream like man who I and many millions of others wanted to be and what we believed we could become and the very existence of Bruce Lee was proof that our dream, if we work hard enough definitely could become a reality.

Needless to say after a few sessions of trying to learn his art I realized how impossible it is to reach anywhere near Bruce Lee and so I abandoned my dream of becoming a martial artiste and settled for the far less painful and much easier art of filmmaking.

But inspite of abandoning Martial Arts my study of Bruce Lee and his thinking punched a huge impact on my mind in various ways which would in time influence both my life and my films.

Lee said “True understanding of the art of fighting begins when one sheds set patterns, and true freedom of expression in art occurs only when one is beyond systems. Regardless of their many legendary origins,styles are eventually created by living men and hence they should not be taken as a gospel truth. Man, the living creating individual should always be more important than any existing style

These words of Bruce Lee made me feel that there is nothing wrong with being different. Being different means being an individual. If I can’t be an individual martial artist atleast let me be an individual human being and an individual filmmaker. “I am all styles and no style”, said Bruce Lee. That’s where my style came from.

Regarding essential and existential discipline Bruce Lee said

“I have on my table a violin string. It is free.

I twist one end of it and it turns. It is free.

But it is not free to do what it is supposed to do.

That is to produce music.

So I take it and fix it in my violin

And tighten it till it is taut.

Only then it is free

to be a violin string”

The fact that the greatest fighter with the fittest body ever and the soundest mind ever could just die of some bodily reaction to some stupid pain killer was inconceivable to me. I can’t ever forget the grief I felt for his death. It was a mixture of a stunned belief and a sense of almost feeling betrayed.

The fact that a man like that at the age of thirty-two could die just like that, was devastating to say the least. As I started thinking deeper, I realized that inspite of all the inspirations he provoked the hard truth was that a symbol of absolute perfection like him could die too.

But inspite of how much I grieved his death, and however harsh it might sound, I am really glad that he died when he died as in no way I would have ever wanted to see a 80 year old Bruce Lee which would be his age now if he was alive

I thank God so much for taking Bruce Lee away very early in his life thus immortalizing him and I am sure he's still kicking and punching in his grave instead of resting in peace like ordinary people

Here’s wishing my Bruce a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

 RGV”