20 years of 'Satya': Lesser known facts about Ram Gopal Varma's classic
Did you know that Manoj Bajpayee was earlier considered for the lead role but eventually played Bhiku Mhatre in the film?
It has been 20 long years since Bhiku Mhatre declared Mumbai as his kingdom in Ram Gopal Varma's 'Satya'. A cult classic, Satya captured Mumbai underworld in all its glory and gave the country an insight into how things work with the mafia in the city.
The film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap. Southern star JD Chakravarthy played the lead role in the film and Manoj Bajpayee, then a popular face on TV, made his debut as Bhiku Mhatre.
As the film completes 20 years, here is a look at some lesser-known facts about the film.
- Manoj Bajpayee was offered the lead role initially. However, as the roles were developed RGV felt the character of Bhiku Mhatre needed an actor with a good command over Hindi and eventually offered Bajpayee the role.
- Mahima Chaudhary was earlier offered to play the female lead. It was eventually played by Urmila Matondkar
- Ram Gopal Varma regretted casting Bajpayee in a small role in 'Daud' and post the film's release promised Bajpayee a bigger, meatier role in his next project.
- It was Manoj Bajpayee who introduced RGV to Kashyap and he was roped in to write the screenplay for the film. RGV also convinced Saurabh Shukla to co-write the screenplay along with Kashyap. Interstingly Shukla initially did not want to write, but RGV also offered him a role and Shukla eventually agreed to write as he said he was 'hooked' by RGV's narration.
- Actor JD Chakravarthy had earlier worked with RGV in 'Shiva'. RGV wanted to cast an unknown face in the lead role because he did not want the actor to have a set image in public's mind. It also helped that Chakravarthy did not speak fluent Hindi much like his character in the film.
- Chakravarthy later stated that he copied Ram Gopal Varma while playing Satya on screen.
- Not just Manoj Bajpayee, but actor Sushant Singh too made his Bollywood debut with the film.
- Anurag Kashyap composed and directed the opening scene of Satya when the protagonist arrives in Mumbai.
- The scene at the beginning of the film where Manjrekar and Bappu murder a film producer on a busy street was actually shot on a set. The street was was created inside the studio, with parked cars belonging to the film crew.
- The scene where Sushant Singh's face is slashed by Chakravarthy was supposed to end there, but Varma forgot to say "cut" and the rest of the scene was improvised by the actors.
-Bajpayee is scared of heights and in the famous scene 'Mumbai Ka King Kaun' Bajpayee took too much time to prepare. He was to stand on a cliff for a half a minute and say the dialogue and come back but it took Bajpayee a long time to get ready. Instead of the dialogue, he said 'Please get me out of here'. The actual dialogue was dubbed later.