Editor-filmmaker Apurva Asrani, who edited Ram Gopal Varma’sVarma’s Satya recalls an incident during the shooting. “I was sent out to shoot some B Roll(secondary shooting) Mumbai footage with steadicam operator Nitin Rao: to use for montages, etc. That day one building of Poonam Chambers had collapsed in Worli. Since we wanted to show the impact of the underworld, I thought that the building might resemble a bomb-blasted structure.” But there was a hitch. “The cops didn’t let us shoot; in fact we weren’t allowed even near the sight. Luckily, me being a Worli boy, I knew a back route to Poonam Chambers through some slums. Nitin and I sneaked up from there and quietly took two important shots that made it to the title montage showing destruction by the underworld.”
Speaking on the enduring impact of Satya, Apurva says, “The film was a clutter breaker when it came out in 1998. It told a realistic story with sizzling front-bencher dialogues and used a cinematic language–a narrative and a pace–like no one was doing before. Plus it was made by a bunch of hungry newcomers who came with no baggage or ego. Maybe that’s why Satya becomes part of public consciousness. I am overwhelmed that 25 years later, it is being discussed with as much passion as when it came out.”
