Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s cult classic, Satya, recently hit theatres once again, bringing the cast and crew together for a special reunion screening. During the event, Urmila Matondkar reminisced about how fashion designer Manish Malhotra was furious with her for wearing inexpensive sarees in the film. Also read: Anurag Kashyap used to fight with Ram Gopal Verma while working on Satya: ‘Even in Manoj’s death sequence…’
Urmila reveals
Urmila looked back at the making of Satya in an interview with Radio Nasha. She said she was annoyed with the critics at the time for just talking about how glamorous she was.
She shared, “I remember the scene where I go for lunch with Shefali Shah and Manoj Bajpayee… It was all quite hotchpotch there, with people trying to set up lights and camera… And I suddenly realised from their body language, which was of a couple, which has been married for 20 years… Now when and how did they figure that… there I was just sitting and completely convinced that I was sitting in front of some super talent, and now I just have to match them up and prove all those critics wrong who were only tomtoming about my glamour quotient, which incidentally is all that they could see but anyway, that’s part of past.”
Urmila added, “I have to mention another maverick who worked on the movie, who I got firing from, which is Manish Malhotra. After Rangeela, here we were breaking our heads and buying this cheap sarees. So this one time, during an interview someone asked me something about my looks… and I was like, ‘Yaar, why are you all so obsessed with my pout and image? I am wearing sarees worth ₹500. Suddenly, I get a call… at that time mobiles were not common. He yelled, ‘Tumne ₹500 ka saree kyu bola? Was it necessary to mention THAT?’ I was like, ‘Manish, that’s the whole point’. I guess he missed it. But, today, he would have been happy that it’s okay it’s made up for it.”
About Satya
Produced and directed by RGV, Satya also stars Manoj Bajpayee, Paresh Rawal, Makarand Deshpande, Saurabh Shukla, Aditya Srivastava, Govind Namdeo, late Neeraj Vora, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, and Sushant Singh.
The film revolves around the titular character (JD Chakravarthy) who migrates to Mumbai. After a local scuffle, he’s sent to jail, where he meets gangster Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj). Bhiku and his gang then woo Satya to work for them towards a larger criminal conspiracy. Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj broke out with Satya as a music composer. The song Sapno Mein Milti Hai is still a rage today. Gulzar penned the lyrics.
