There is less space for humour or for reality: Saurabh Shukla

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He is one of the most formidable performers in Bollywood but it was "Satya" which established his reputation as a great actor and also as a writer.

The actor, who co-wrote Ram Gopal Varma's cult gangster drama with Anurag Kashyap, has fond memories of the 1998 film and considers it among his favourite films.

Ram Gopal Varma was the only director at that time who was making experimental films and many talented people wanted to be a part of that process, including Shukla.

"I was dying to act in a Ram Gopal Varma film at that time. When he said, I also had to write, I couldn't say no. I am glad I wrote that film as it made me learn so much. It established me as a writer. Writing is a tough process and it is not even paid well," Shukla told PTI in an interview.

"Ramu had been working on 'Satya' for a quite sometime. He had worked with Anurag for a year or so on it. But when he decided to make the film, he wanted another writer to come in. He had the whole world ready for that film, he had characters and some incidents that he wanted to incorporate in the story."
"It is unfair when people ask about Ramu's contribution or inputs from me or Anurag, there is no I, you and me. It was a combined effort. We wrote it from scratch, we made the screenplay, everybody contributed in the film."
"Everybody is so touchy about everything. There is less and less space for humour or even for reality. Somehow, we have chosen not to reflect the reality. The whole world is getting touchy. It is like a maze and you get lost."
"But I write what I like, I don't do it as a profession. I have never claimed that I am a professional writer. So I get freedom to write what I want to write."
"When Subhash told me that I have to play the role of a judge, I had this cardboardish image of a judge. I told him 'Please, don't let me play judge, he only says - 'order order' and delivers the verdict. That's it'. But when I heard the whole script, I told him nobody will do this role but me."
"I am not a leading man so I have the privilege of not thinking so much about the numbers. Once the film had started rolling, we knew we were making a good film. I enjoyed every bit of that. We shot the film completely in Lucknow. I have great respect for the director. The script was tight. Nobody knew about the numbers. If you like what you do, you can expect people to like it."