Why Ram Gopal Varma Was Ashamed After Watching Satya

'I've never seen Ramuji cry... even when his father passed away.'
'But after the special screening of Satya he was crying.'

J D Chakravarthy, who made Satya come alive in Ram Gopal Varma's cult classic film, revisits it decades after its release in 1998.

He tells Subhash K Jha, "There is a hurt from the past 27 years that I've been carrying, this lump in my heart, because the whole world said I was good, fantastic, superb... but it took Ramuji 27 years to acknowledge my performance."

What do you have to say about the impact of Satya?

I think I need to change the timelines.

I would like to start with what happened after the show on January 15, when Satya re-released.

I have been associated with Ramuji from Shiva. I've been his assistant.

He's produced about 36 films with me.

I directed 12 films for him.

I edited... we can go on.

The point is, I've never seen him cry... even when his father passed away.

But after the special screening of Satya he was crying.

That was the first time we hugged each other.

Then he started saying something very interesting, which why I said I need to change the timeline.

What did he say?

He said, I'm ashamed of myself because this is what I made once and look at what I did later.

Then he said something about me. He said he didn't shoot my introduction part.

He said, 'I'm surprised and sad that how did I not notice that you were brilliant in the film?'

What was your reaction?

I said, 'Sir, I just want to tell you something. There is a hurt from the past 27 years that I've been carrying, this lump in my heart, because the whole world said I was good, fantastic, superb... but it took you 27 years to acknowledge my performance.'

I always thought because of the aggressive nature of Bhiku Mhatre's character, I played Satya very quietly.

When I walk out of the VT station, anyone who walks into Bombay for the first time, the first thing they see after they come out of the station are the high buildings. But I didn't look at anything.

I just kept walking.

Ramuji said, When someone comes out, he looks for transportation like an autorickshaw, taxi or a bus; they would have some destination. But you just droop your shoulders so that in the very walk, you can see that you don't have any destination.

He said, If I had a chance to do it again, I would have asked you to look around but the way you performed...

And then he started saying all those scenes.

Every actor in the film was given the rough lines in the scene, and asked to perform, even improvise. But I was the only one in the entire set, who was told to do nothing.

That's so difficult!

I am an extrovert. I had to make sure my character Satya does not look dull. He should look like a guy who's silent but extremely focused.

I was constantly reminded on the sets, aapko kuch nahi karne ka hai, just understand the world around me.

It was a challenge.

Yes, we noticed your stillness.

There is a scene where Guru Narayan (Raju Mavani) walks out of the airport and we are planning to kill him. Bhikhu Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee) is standing beside a tree and I'm sitting in a car.

Guru Narayan's car passes by and I get out of the car. I was told to stand beside Manoj.

I said no, just because I'm Satya, I have to come and stand beside him? Because the focus would be in the centre.

I said, technically, if I am walking towards Manoj, there is only space on the left edge of the camera.

So I was just standing there and not even putting an effort to be seen.

Now that's a difficult thing.

Satya was not my first film. I was already a big star down South. So for me, my journey in the South was to be in focus, so and this was so difficult to be out of focus.

You were also a part of the technical team?

I was a part of the editing team.

I was also in charge for the post-production, sound, everything.

The post-production of Satya in all the three languages, so Ramuji told me a good-bad news.

He said, 'Chakri, I don't want to use a background score for your one-liners.’

Now, actors subconsciously feel that if they do something, there will be a sound effect on me or some music which will enhance the performance.

So firstly, I was the only actor who was told not to do anything.

Secondly, I had to remain out of the focus.

Thirdly, Ramuji told me after the very first schedule that there would be no music or background score effect on me.

So this was not an easy thing to do.

Initially, it was difficult to come in terms with this but I thought, nahi, this is like a fixed deposit. This will probably take time but it will work for you in the long run.

I confessed something recently to Ramuji.

Please tell.

When we are doing the climax, Ramuji told me, 'Chakri, dekh climax mein roughly, this is what I'm thinking. I don't want you to use any method acting, so the next day, go for the shoot and we'll just do it.'

I said, done sir.

So the next day, we did the climax, whatever you see in the film.

At the re-release, I called my steadicam operator -- his name is Nitin Rao -- and told him that it's time to confess the truth to Ramuji.

Actually, I had planned out my entire performance because Ramuji doesn't like those like falling down and then struggling to get up. He thought it would get melodramatic.

So what I did was to take my steadicam operator into confidence about what I was going to do and how he had to capture what we had rehearsed.

The truth is, we rehearsed it but in front of Ramuji, we pretended (to do it for the first time).

Did you expect Satya to make such an impact?

To be very honest, none of us, including Ramuji, saw this coming.

See, the filmmaker generally thinks that every film is going to be a super duper hit.

While we were making Satya, we knew we're making a good film. But how good? No idea.

There's something else.

Tell us.

The Golimaar Bheja Mein song. Our cameraman Gerard Hooper was from America. His visa expired and he had to rush back.

But the next day, we already called for the shoot.

Ahmed Khan was supposed to be the choreographer.

The whole unit was there, and we introduced the new cameraman: Ramuji himself!