Sarkar Raaj to release on June 6

It's finally on. Ram Gopal Varma's long-awaited Sarkar Raaj featuring Bollywood's first family is all set for a June 6 release. But a few days before its commercial release, the film will be premiered at the IIFA in Bangkok.

Confirming these developments Ram Gopal Varma says the film's release date has been on the anvil for a while. "People have been unnecessarily speculating about the matter. We never announced any date. I was very clear that I wanted to release it during the summer vacations. We were undecided between the last week of May and the first week of June. Now we've zeroed in on June 6," says Ramu.

Confirming Sarkar Raaj will be premiered at the IIFA, Ramu says, "With the Bachchans being closely associated with the IIFA, it seemed appropriate to premiere it at that venue."

Any specific thoughts on Sarkar Raaj? "People have been making so many assumptions about the film I wonder what they expect!" chuckles Ramu. Firstly, audiences should not expect Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to play their real-life roles as husband and wife as they did in Mani Ratnam's Guru. For most of the film, the couple plays adversaries and opponents in business and morality rather than partners.

Secondly, the senior B's character goes into the shadows as Abhishek takes over the empire. And thirdly, Ramu insists, people should stop drawing real-life parallels. "This time the socio-political content is higher than in Sarkar. But the characters are not modeled on real people."

Subash K. Jha