Days after Satya’s January 17 re-release, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma said that his failure to set the 1998 crime drama as a benchmark caused him to “meander into making films for shock value or for gimmick effect”, blinded by his “own success and arrogance”. Had he remained committed to the vision that produced Satya, he would not have made 90 per cent of the films he directed later, the 62-year-old confessed in a long note on X Monday.
“Coming back to the hotel after the screening of Satya, and sitting in the dark I didn't understand why with all my so-called intelligence, I did not set this film as a benchmark for whatever I should do in the future...I lost my vision and that explains my meandering into making films for shock value or for gimmick effect or to make a vulgar display of my technical wizardry or various other things equally meaningless,” wrote Varma, lamenting his “self-indulgence” and the lack of “sincerity” in the films he directed since Satya.
“No one asked me about any film I was about to make post Satya whether it will be as good, but what’s worse is that I didn't ask myself. I so wish I could go back in time and make this one cardinal rule for myself, that before deciding on any film to make, I should watch Satya once again… If I followed that rule, I am sure I would not have made 90% of the films I made since then,” added Varma.
In his note, the director equated the process of filmmaking with childbirth. “Making a film is like giving birth to a child originating from throes of passion without truly realising what kind of a child I am giving birth to. That’s because a film is made in bits and pieces without one really knowing what’s being made and when it is ready the concentration is on what others are saying about it and after that, whether it’s a hit or not, I move on too obsessed with what’s next to reflect and understand the beauty of what I myself created,” he stated.
Varma likened his painful realisation after re-watching Satya to an incident involving American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. “When Coppola was asked by an interviewer whether a film he made after The Godfather would be as good, I could see him squirming because it didn’t occur to him,” reads his note.
“Finally, I have taken a vow that whatever little time is left in my life, I want to spend it sincerely and create something as worthy as Satya. This truth I swear on Satya,” Varma signed off.
The director previously stated that Satya’s cult status serves as a lesson on how the narrative and authenticity of characters drive a film’s success, criticising the industry’s alleged obsession with “massive budgets,” “expensive VFX,” and star power ahead of the film’s re-release.
Satya, the first instalment of Varma’s Gangster trilogy about organised crime in India, stars Manoj Bajpayee, J.D. Chakravarthy, Aditya Shrivastava and Paresh Rawal in key roles. Written by Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap, the film follows Satya (Chakravarthy), an immigrant who arrives in Mumbai seeking employment. After befriending Bhiku Mhatre (Bajpayee), Satya becomes embroiled in the city’s underworld.
Released on July 3, 1998, Satya won a National Film Award and inspired several other crime dramas like Company (2002) and D (2005), as well as a direct sequel, Satya 2 (2013).