Satya

Satya is a 1998 Indian Hindi-language crime film, produced and directed by Ram Gopal Varma; written by Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap. It stars J. D. Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpayee, Urmila Matondkar, Shukla and Shefali Shah in lead roles. It is the first of Varma’s Gangster trilogy about organised crime in India. The film follows Satya (Chakravarthy), an immigrant who comes to Mumbai looking for a job, befriends Bhiku Mhatre (Bajpayee) and is drawn into the Mumbai underworld. Varma initially planned to make an action film, but decided to make a film focusing on felony after meeting some criminals. He hired Kashyap and Shukla to write the film, and opted to use lesser-known actors. The soundtrack and score were composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and Sandeep Chowta, respectively, while the lyrics were written by Gulzar. Its early cinematography was done by Gerard Hooper, who was replaced by Mazhar Kamran. The film was shot in Mumbai on a budget of ₹2 crore (US$280,000). Satya was released on 3 July 1998 to critical acclaim, particularly for its realistic depiction of the Indian underworld. It was a commercial success, grossing more than ₹15 crore (US$2.1 million), and helped launch a number of careers (especially for Kashyap and Bajpayee). The film won six Filmfare Awards and a National Film Award. Over the years, Satya has been regarded as a cult film, and is considered one of the greatest films ever made by a number of critics and scholars in Indian cinema. Film critic Rajeev Masand called it one of the most influential films of the past ten years. It inspired several sequels like Company (2002) and D (2005), and a direct sequel, Satya 2 (2013).