Raj Thackeray watches excerpts from 'Sarkar Raj'

By Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai, April 3 Raj Thackeray, chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the man whose remarks and activities of his followers sparked off parochial unrest in Mumbai, has met Bolloywood director Ram Gopal Varma to watch a part of "Sarkar Raj".

Loosely based on Shiv Sena's chief Bal Thackeray's life, "Sarkar Raj" is a sequel to Varma's "Sarkar" and stars Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai in key roles. Raj Thackeray had also taken on Amitabh Bachchan in his diatribe.

"Raj and Varma have been friends for some time now. In fact, when 'Sarkar' was made, it was Raj who coordinated between Varma and the Shiv Sena supremo," a source close to Varma told IANS.

"Raj is keenly interested in movies. So when after chatting up, Varma asked Raj if he wanted to watch some of 'Sarkar Raj', he readily agreed. He watched about 30 minutes of the film and apparently loved it," the source said.

Raj was amused to see one of the actors in "Sarkar Raj" resembled him.

"Yes, one of the actors does resemble Raj, but his role is not modelled on him," added the source.