Satya re-release premiere: Manoj Bajpayee brings the house down as he reveals, “Ram Gopal Varma was very disturbed and restless after watching Bandit Queen. He told me, ‘I want to f**k Shekhar Kapur'”

By Fenil Seta -

January 17, 2025 - 6:00 PM IST

PVR INOX, Versova Homage Screening and Radio Nasha organized the screening of Satya (1998) on January 15, two days before its re-release in cinemas across the country. The event was memorable as it was graced by the film’s team – director Ram Gopal Varma, presenters Bharat Shah and Vinay Chowksey, music director Vishal Bhardwaj, writer Anurag Kashyap and actors Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpayee, Chakravarthy, Aditya Srivastava and Makrand Deshpande. The team of the film went down memory lane like never before, especially Manoj Bajpayee who revealed how he bagged the film.

Satya re-release premiere: Manoj Bajpayee brings the house down as he reveals, “Ram Gopal Varma was very disturbed and restless after watching Bandit Queen. He told me, ‘I want to f**k Shekhar Kapur'”

The host, RJ Rohini, asked about the ‘khaas jagah’ that Manoj Bajpayee has for Satya in his heart. Manoj smiled and remarked, “Khaas jagah? I am working even today thanks to Satya. It gave a career to so many of us. Urmila Matondkar was an exception as she was already a big star by then!”

Manoj continued, “Kannan Iyer, who worked on Bandit Queen (1994), told me, Irrfan Khan and one more actor that Ramu was casting for some characters in Daud (1997) and we should audition for it. I asked Kannan about the role. He told me, ‘Paresh Rawal ke henchman ka role hai’! I had reservations but Kannan claimed, ‘Even if you have just one dialogue in his film, you might find yourself doing the main role in his next movie’. On that assurance, I went for the audition (laughs).”

Manoj Bajpayee raised laughs when he said, “(When I landed at Ram Gopal Varma’s place for the audition), I saw Irrfan and many other actors. I was wondering, ‘Kitne henchmen hai?’!”

He continued, “I was the last one to meet him (Ram Gopal Varma). He asked me about the films I have worked on. I informed him that I worked in Bandit Queen. When he asked me, which role I played, I replied that I played Maan Singh. He was shocked and he said, ‘Really? But you look very young’. I laughed and said, ‘I am young. I had to grow a beard for that role’. He told me, ‘Don’t do this role. I’ll make another film with you. I was looking for you for a long time’. That shocked me that for 3-4 years, he couldn’t find me.”

He added, “Anyway, I worked in Daud as I wanted money and also. I feared that later, Ramu ji mujhe pehchaanenge nahin! True to his words, he cast me in Satya. He also desired to make a film on the lines of Bandit Queen with Satya.”

Manoj Bajpayee then raised tremendous laughs as he revealed, “I don’t know whether I should say this or not, but Ramu was very disturbed and restless after watching Bandit Queen. One day, he told me, ‘I need those talents, but I am not familiar with them. So, you help me introduce those talents’. He further said, ‘I want to f**k Shekhar Kapur’!”

The crowd couldn’t stop laughing and hooting. Ram Gopal Varma also laughed and then he shared a fascinating piece of trivia saying, “Shekhar Kapur saw Satya at Adlabs theatre, and he stated, ‘You have beaten me’!”

Also Read: Satya re-release premiere: Anurag Kashyap reveals that he and Ram Gopal Varma “used to argue a lot”: “To shut me up, Ramu would say, ‘It’s a good idea; put it in your film'”