Sunday, August 08, 2021

A discussion about Satya with Uday Bhatia (plus a bit on Jaane bhi do Yaaro)

My friend Uday Bhatia has written an excellent book about the making of Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 Satya, a film that opened new gateways for Hindi cinema and had a crew of people who would play a big part in the subsequent development of the "indie" or multiplex-era movie. With the book available for pre-order now (link here), I thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with Uday about the film, how it came together, and the larger context of the Bombay gangster movie (or the gangster genre more generally).

When I was exchanging emails with Uday during the writing of his book in the last few years, we were struck by the little similarities with the making of Jaane bhi do Yaaro, another cult film -- and a "Bombay noir" -- which I had written a book about a decade earlier. So we thought we'd weave a bit of that into the discussion as well (though the focus will remain on Satya).

 

This online conversation will be on Saturday, August 14 at 7.30 pm India time -- it is open to all, and participants can ask Uday questions about the book. Please try to make it. The Zoom link is below:

Topic: Talking Satya with Uday Bhatia
Time: Aug 14, 2021 07:30 PM Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi

Click here.

Meeting ID: 820 9295 0096
Passcode: 336705

2 comments:

  1. How long do you think this would be?

    Also, have you written about Satya elsewhere? Would be interesting to read your thoughts too.

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    Replies
    1. Rahul: the session could well extend to 2 hours (or even more) depending on how many people participate and ask questions, and how willing Uday is to indulge them.
      No, I haven't written about Satya. I didn't watch the film during its original release -- I wasn't watching Hindi films at all during that period -- and in fact I properly watched it from beginning to end (as opposed to piecemeal) only very recently.

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