“I saw ‘Bhiku Mhatre’ the first time when Manoj (Bajpayee) entered my office in that character and that is something I will never ever forget. Everything... the detailing of the shirt, the clothes he wore and the way he stood in front of me... probably it was for the first time I had an interaction with a method actor,” says Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) as his 1998 crime-drama Satya re-releases today, January 17. The film pivoted the career of the critically acclaimed star and for the longest time Bajpayee’s name remained synonymous with the titular character of Bhiku Mhatre -- a gangster and the leader of a Mumbai underworld gang in Satya. Following Satya, there was no turning back for Bajpayee who made his feature film debut with minor roles in Drohkaal and Bandit Queen, both released in 1994.
Bajpayee candidly states that it was the greed for bagging another RGV film as lead he accepted the offer of Satya. While reflecting on his breakthrough project for which he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor, he says, “I got introduced to Ramu (RGV) through one Kanan Iyer who was assisting for (Shekhar Kapur’s) Bandit Queen. Kanan told me that Ramu was looking for some characters for his film Daud and Irrfan (Khan) was also shortlisted for the same. When I asked about my role, I was told I had to play Paresh Rawal’s henchman. I was disappointed but Kanan told me that you might suddenly find doing the main role in Ramu’s next even if you had to mouth only one dialogue in his first film. On that expectation I went to meet Ramu (laughs). When I was waiting for the lift, Irrfan and one another actor turned up and I was wondering how many henchmen Paresh would have because I was earlier told there is only one and that is me (laughs heartily). Ramu met me after he had met all the other actors and told me he will cast me in his next film (Satya) and that he was looking for me after watching Bandit Queen. I did Daud because I was getting a little bit of money,” says Bajpayee.
Further, Bajpayee reveals that RGV was very disturbed and restless after watching Bandit Queen. “One day he told me that he wants to meet some great talents and that I introduce him to some such talents (for the making of Satya)...and when Shekhar saw Satya he told Ramu: ‘You have beaten me’.” “We were all working on Satya sincerely, I don’t remember any of us ever thinking this film will work at the box office or not. We were discovering the film as we were making it and accidentally things were happening which nobody will believe,” says RGV.
Bajpayee says one person he was terribly insecure of on set was JD Chakravarthy as he was playing the title role. “I was very jealous of him because I knew that only his photo would go on the poster. I was more concerned about the poster than the film and I used to call Anurag (Kashyap, co-writer) every morning to find out if my scene for that day was being retained or not,” confesses the actor. “Every day before going on the set I would get a call from Manoj and he would ask whether his scene will be there,” laughs Kashyap, who reveals there were a lot of disagreements between the writers and director.
“I was so raw; I was learning and I would also argue so much with Ramu and Ramu would be eventually right. He would often say, ‘Good idea, put it in your films'. I did not agree with the way that scene when Manoj gets killed, was shot. Only when I saw it on screen, I felt I was so wrong. Ramu would say, Anurag, when you are making your film, put all the logic on how somebody is killed. Whatever we wrote initially thinking we were writing a script was thrown away and then the film was written on the go,” says Kashyap.
Ramu reveals that initially Bajpayee was supposed to play Satya, “But I told him that ‘Bhiku Matre’ requires a certain kind of performance and someone like him can do it. The story is of Satya but it is the characters other than Satya that has made the film. The film is about a gangster falling in love with a girl and by the time he wants to come out it is too late and this is the basic plot line of Satya. Many times the atmospheric characters make the film work more than the actual plot of the story. But when I was explaining all this to Manoj, he was not even listening to me because he thought I was telling some tall story just to make him feel good. He kept looking at the ceiling. Later, of course, he was appreciated when the film started doing the rounds and he got an award. But even as he knew he was playing the second lead, while shooting his sincerity was unmatched," says RGV.
For the role, the acclaimed actor sourced his clothes and took his cook’s aid to pick up the local dialect. He devoted two months to emulating the character well and learning the antics for the role. Reflecting on the film’s success, he says. “I wasn’t expecting anything for myself in this lifetime. However, I soon realised that God had different plans. I felt the difference in how I was treated by the industry post-Satya. I will always cherish the euphoria my character created.”
RGV further stated that the cast and crew became aware of their ‘talents’ only after the film was made. “We never had a script but strangely enough we were all being very true and honest to what we were shooting each day. And then with the final outcome of what we made, we were as shocked as the audience," he says. "Believe it or not,” he reveals, “I haven’t seen the entire film even once since its release. I only know the film in bits and pieces and not an entire experience. So I guess, I am looking forward to it as a popcorn experience.”
Interestingly, when Satya was planned there were no songs in the film but then the film’s financier Bharat Shah insisted on having some good music. ‘If no songs then how will you promote the film? Nobody will come to see the film’, is what Shah told the makers. “Those days there were no theatrical trailers, to promote a film, songs were played by music channels. But a lot of people from the film team were disappointed with the decision to include songs in the film. Now after all these years... one can’t imagine the film without these songs -- Kallu mama or Sapne mein milti hai, “ says RGV, who remembers Sandeep Chowta, the film’s music composer telling him -- ‘Ramu, do you think if Godfather had songs how would it be?’ I was pretty scared because it was a strong logic. But we decided to take a chance and that is how Vishal Bhardwaj came into the picture," says RGV.
Urmila Matondkar, who played Satya's (JD Chakravarty) love interest in the film was essentially picked up for the glamour quotient after she was seen in Rangeela, Judaai and many more films around that time in the 90's. “I came in the movie by default. I was not even supposed to be part of the movie. I was busy shooting a glamorous song for this movie called Deewane and next moment I was doing the climax scene for Satya ..suddenly overnight I land on Satya set right opposite Dagdi chawl and I remember being explained which ‘gangster’ lives in which lane (laughs) I was literally told the story of this film last minute and in 24 hours I was on the set playing the role,” says Matondkar, further adding, “I was sure about the people I was working with.” Says RGV, “This is true but without Urmila, Satya wouldn’t have happened because Bharat Shah put a condition that unless you have a star like Urmila how the hell can we make this film. I never told this secret to anybody, including Urmila.”
Matondkar says, those days, how much she tried, she couldn’t let go of her glamorous image. “I was convinced that I had to match up with some super talented people working on the film like Manoj, Shefali (Shah) and others. I had to prove critics wrong who were only tom toming my glamour quotient which incidentally they could see. I was working with a tremendous bomb and that is Manoj Bajpayee which I could see in those raw rushes. After Rangeela here we were trying and breaking our heads over my image makeover but the media was stuck with my glamorous side as Matondkar recalls, “After Rangeela here we were trying [to break my image] and breaking our heads buying some cheapie charlie sarees... I told one journalist why are you guys so obsessed with my pout and image. I have worn a Rs 500 saree in Satya, cut two, I got a call from designer Manish Malhotra who fired me saying -- 'Why the hell did you say that the saree cost Rs 500? Why were you so specific?’ I think he had missed the point,” laughs Matondkar.
Released on July 3, 1998, Satya went on to win a National Film Award. It inspired several other crime dramas like Company (2002) and D (2005) and a direct sequel Satya 2 (2013).
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