20 years of 'Satya': When Manoj Bajpayee wanted to play title role, not Bhiku Mhatre

Proclaiming to the world that he is 'Mumbai's King' was Manoj Bajpayee's Bhiku Mhatre from "Satya", but when he was offered the role, the actor was sad as he was more tempted to play the titular character.

"Satya", which released on July 3, 1998, changed the careers of writers Anurag Kashyap who co-wrote the film with actor Saurabh Shukla and most importantly, Bajpayee who shot to fame with his portrayal of Mhatre, a gangster.

"Initially it was a deal that I would be playing the title role but he said 'I don't need an actor for the title role, I need someone who has a great presence.' I was very sad that he doesn't think I have presence. I now thank God, he gave me the right role to work on," Bajpayee told PTI.

"... Everybody used to feel so excited about my performance but I wasn't sure if we are doing it right. That feeling of unsureness was always looming large because no one of the film industry was making this kind of a film," he adds.

Bajpayee charts the journey of how he bagged the film, made his own costume for "Satya" and to the day how he "nearly died" when he went to watch the film.

The 49-year-old actor had a cameo in Shekhar Kapur's "Bandit Queen", but nothing seemed to have changed in his career post this 1994 critically-acclaimed film.

But as fate would have it, things changed, when Kanan Iyer was casting for small parts requested Bajpayee to meet Varma as "Ramu had the reputation of making a career out of small roles".

When Bajpayee first met the director, he was in for a surprise, as the filmmaker wanted to work with him after "Bandit Queen".

The actor recalls that Varma said he would only work with him on condition: "He (Varma) said you have to introduce me to all the new talents that I am not aware of. That job was given to me.

"That's how Anurag came into the picture and then Saurabh. Later on, Anurag took up the job to find new talent."
"Manish Malhotra designed for Urmila Matondkar and some of the female actors. He was a big designer and most of us had done our own thing because we were fairly new."
"The distributors started demanding songs because in those days making a film without songs was difficult. So Anurag and I lobbied for Vishal Bhardwaj and then Gulzar sir came on board. We shot the songs later."
"They (owners) had to stop the film screening. The theatre staff was there who came for my rescue otherwise I would have died of suffocation."