By Subhash K Jha

Mumbai, Dec 12 (IANS) Barely a week after the debacle of "Rakht Charitra", the indefatigable Ram Gopal Varma has decided to properly launch southern star Suriya with a more conventional romantic-action drama and the actor says he won't mind teaming up with the director again.

Apparently the people behind "Rakht Charitra 2" felt Suriya didn't give the film the promotional pitch it required either in Mumbai or in Chennai and as a result it has bombed both in Hindi and Tamil.

But Suriya defends himself saying: "Over here (in Tamil cinema) we don't really go all-out to promote and market our films the way they do in Bollywood. You could say our marketing is more subtle. I don't go out and sell any of my films to the audience."

"However, for 'Rakht Charitra', I did make an effort to do more publicity than I usually do. RGV (Ram Gopal Varma) and I flew to Madurai to meet the audience and fans - this is something I haven't done before."

Suriya says "Rakht Charitra 2" was never meant for the masses. The film is a two-part biobic based on the life of slain factionist and Andhra Pradesh poltical leader Paritala Ravindra.

"'Rakht Charitra' was never meant to be a film for all tastes. Its intense violent theme was always a deterrent to a mass audience. Even my most violent films have a family base in the plot or there's a love story behind the violence. In 'Rakht Charitra' there was no digression from the intense theme....all in all, no regrets. I'd love to do another film with RGV."

Suriya is recovering from the back injury that was one of the reasons that prevented him from being in Mumbai during the promotion of the Hindi version of "Rakht Charitra 2".

"The doctors have asked me to take it easy. So we're shooting scenes. We'll shoot the action in the climax after a month."