Ram Gopal Varma, Wanted.

Oh, that isn't the name of his new film. At least, not that we know of.

It's just that the filmmaker has virtually gone into hiding over the last two months. 

No one seems to have seen him, and those who want to contact him don't know where he has disappeared.

In fact, one of our journalist friends who got his new phone number repeatedly sent him SMSes and called him but to no avail.

It seems that Ramu's stars are really in a slump. 

As the picture suggests -- cruelly but perhaps with striking coincidence -- that all his friends have now dumped him, post his defiant attempt of remaking Sholay [Images] into Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

His one time protege Nisha Kothari [Images] too has changed her name to Priyanka now. She feels that after trying her luck for so long, she couldn't make her presence felt.

All his other colleagues and former allies, it is heard, have distanced themselves from Ramu, and it now seems his latest film Dhyey is having trouble taking off, due to a lack of financers.

However, some close friends feel Ramu is hoping to make it big once again with his film Sarkar Raj, starring the Bachchan parivar. Not only was Sarkar a big success for RGV, but the sequel is the first film to star Amitabh [Images], Abhishek and Aishwarya [Images] together.

"He is just waiting and will hit back with Sarkar Raj," says an actor wishing to be anonymous. A onetime close friend of Ramu's, the actor said, "He has always been like that. He will lie low and then come back with a bang."

We wonder what happened to Ramu's famous spirit.

Text: Gullu Gupshup | Photograph: Pradeep Bandekar