Popular filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on Thursday shared an emotional note on Michael Jackson after watching the biopic ‘Michael,’ saying how the ‘King of Pop’ shaped his imagination and creative journey from college days. The filmmaker said that Jackson’s death broke a fantasy within him that he had carried for years. On his X handle, Varma wrote a note, saying that he “hates” Michael Jackson for dying because it made him realise that even someone like him was human.
Ram Gopal Varma On Micheal Jackson’s Death
Recalling the day he first heard about Jackson’s death in 2009, Varma wrote, “I HATE MICHAEL After watching MICHAEL film, my memory went back to that horrible day June 25 th, 2009 when I slept late with the television still murmuring like a ghost in the darkness of my room, and as I groggily woke up in the morning and my eyes went to the screen to see those terrible white letters against black: “Michael Jackson is Dead.”
“For several long seconds, this must be a nightmare, I thought. Why the hell would I even dream something so horrible? But the banner on the tv stayed and the news ticker kept crawling. I reached out to the remote and started switching channels and all anchors were speaking with the same solemn gravity, and I finally realised the impossible had happened,” he added.
I HATE MICHAEL
After watching MICHAEL film , my memory went back to that horrible day June 25 th , 2009 when I slept late with the television still murmuring like a ghost in the darkness of my room , and as I groggily woke up in the morning and my eyes went to the screen to see…
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 22, 2026
How Michael Jackson Influenced Ram Gopal Varma
He further shared how he first watched ‘Thriller’ in a small video parlour in Vijayawada during his engineering college days. Calling the experience an “invasion”, Varma said Jackson’s performance changed the way he looked at music and visuals.
“Back in my engineering college days in Vijayawada, on January 2nd 1984, a friend dragged me into a dingy video parlour, insisting I had to see something. The lights got switched off, and then THRILLER hit me like a punch in the gut It was not just a song or a dance. It was an invasion,” he wrote.
Unreachable Benchmark
Varma also said that Jackson’s videos became an “unreachable benchmark” for him and many others in cinema. He said songs like ‘Beat It’, ‘Billie Jean’, ‘Smooth Criminal’, ‘Black or White’, ‘Remember the Time’ and ‘Bad’ continued to inspire him.
He ended the note by saying that Jackson’s magic will stay with him forever. “Wherever you are now, in whatever dimension, I am sure you are moonwalking across galaxies, creating space storms, with a brilliance which even the stars cannot contain. And I will carry that daze you gave me in that Vijayawada video parlour till i die,” he added.
‘Michael’ stars Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop. The film recreates several famous looks from Jackson’s music videos and performances, including ‘Thriller’ and ‘Beat It’.
(With inputs from ANI)
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
