21 Years of Satya. (03/07/1998)

21 Years of Satya. (03/07/1998)

Satya is a 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, Saurabh Shukla and Shefali Shah in lead roles. It is the first of Varma’s Gangster trilogy about organized 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.

Satya was released on 3 July 1998 to critical acclaim, particularly for its realistic depiction of the Indian underworld.

Satya has attained cult status and is considered one of the best examples of Indian cinema by a number of critics and scholars. It inspired several sequels like Company (2002) and D (2005), and a direct sequel, Satya 2 (2013).