MUMBAI: When it comes to bio-pics Ram Gopal Varma likes to go the whole hog. For Rakht Charitra the Satya-vadi director took his leading man Vivek Oberoi to meet the people close to the outlawed-politician Paritala Ravi whom Oberoi played in the film. The interaction created much controversy and raised eyebrows in and around Ravi’s home-town Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh.

Now just when Varma finished shooting for his new bio-pic on Maria Susairaj, he has pulled off an ‘encounter’ coup of sorts. Actress Mahie Gill who plays Susairaj will be meeting the real Susairaj who’s currently incarcerated for the murder of her benefactor and friend Neeraj Grover in the Arthur Road jail.

The never-say-why Varma, it is understood, has persuaded Gill that meeting Susairaj would give her invaluable insight into the mind and body-language of a woman who in connivance with her boyfriend (to be played by Deepak Dobriyal) coldbloodedly murdered  a man who was useful to her but eventually a nuisance to her personal life.

Known to be a fearless actress (remember her cycling through the fields of Punjab with a bedroll strapped to her carrier to make love with Devdas in Dev D?), Gill got cold feet at the thought of meeting the woman she was all set to play. In fact, Gill fell violently ill with a high fever when the suggestion was made to her by Varma. The actress is still petrified at the prospect of facing the woman she will play.