A thought and a chance meet led RGV to make 'Satya', 'Company'

A weird thought invoked by the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar eventuated into "Satya" while a chance meeting with a serial blasts convict resulted in the epoch-making "Company", the two cult gangster film made in Hindi cinema.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma reveals this in his recently released autobiography "Guns and Thighs - The Story of My Life," published by Rupa.
"...One day, I was sitting in the office of producer Jhamu Sughand, who has producer films like 'Rangeela' and 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' when he received a phone call that music baron Gulshan Kumar had been shot dead.

"A shocked Jhamu told me that Gulshan had woken up around 7 am and had called him to say that at 8 am he was going to meet a singer; at 8.30 am he was supposed to meet a friend, after which he would go to the temple and then come to meet him," Varma recalls in the book.
He adds "While he (Jhamu) was talking, since I have this tendency of all the time thinking cinematically, I wondered If Gulshan Kumar woke up at 7 o'clock, then at what time would the killer have woken up? Did he tell his mom to wake him up because he had a shooting to carry out? Did he have his breakfast before committing the crime or after?

The film, now considered a classic, fetched critical

acclaim and several Filmfare Awards besides a National Film Award for best supporting actor for Manoj Bajpayee.
Another of Varma's iconic rendition of a popular gangster's rivalry between fugitive ganglord Dawood Ibrahim and his aide-turned-foe Chhota Rajan was a resultant of a chance meeting with a close associate of Dawood.
"I happened to meet a guy called Haneef at a producer's house. Haneef had been in jail in the serial blasts case for five years and was very close to Dawood Ibrahim.
"Out of curiosity and my obsession with the criminal psyche, I got talking to him. In about an hour that I spent in Haneef's company, he told me various things about how the underworld operates. Those were also the days where the media was full of stories of the war between Dawood and Chhota Rajan.

"And in the context he said, 'So many on both sides have died in their war with each other. They so desperately want to kill each other, but Ramuji I am telling you this, even today Dawood calls Rajan on the phone, if Rajan is smoking a cigarette he will drop it and say, 'Haan! Dawood Bhai!" That is the inherent respect he has for Dawood. They hate each other because they love each other.' These lines by Haneef gave me the idea for 'Company'," writes Varma.
"Company" which released in 2002, was a major box-office success and brought several laurels to Varma and actors Ajay Devgn and Vivek Oberoi, who played the two central characters in the film now regarded a cult in crime-thriller genre.