Ram Gopal Varma saw Bruce Lee in action for the first time in Enter the Dragon (1973). Ram Gopal Varma saw Bruce Lee in action for the first time in Enter the Dragon (1973).

Director Ram Gopal Varma on Wednesday penned a heartfelt note expressing his admiration for Bruce Lee on the latter’s 79th birth anniversary. In a lengthy Facebook post, the Satya director explained how the martial-arts legend inspired him to be unique and different.

The filmmaker noted that he saw Bruce Lee in action for the first time in Enter the Dragon (1973) and became his admirer. “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,” wrote the director.

“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,” Ram Gopal Varma added.

However, the director was heavily influenced by Bruce Lee’s wisdom and philosophy, which he says helped him become the director that he is today. “Being different means being an individual. If I can’t be an individual martial artiste at least 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,” he said.

RGV also claimed that he was glad that Bruce Lee died young at the age of 32. “…I am really glad that he died when he died as in no way I would have ever wanted to see a 79-year-old Bruce Lee which would be his age now if he was alive.”

Ram Gopal Varma has written and helmed a martial arts film called Enter the Girl Dragon, which is clearly a homage to Bruce Lee. The teaser of the film is set to drop today afternoon.

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