PremiumRam Gopal Varma’s Satya influenced Danny Boyle while making Slumdog Millionaire - Did you know?
Danny Boyle made Slumdog Millionaire, a movie that won 8 Oscars and created history back in the day.
Last Updated: 01.55 PM, Jun 01, 2024
The year 2009 was very interesting for India as it unknowingly became a part of a movie that eventually went on to dominate Oscar night in 2010. Yes, we are talking about Slumdog Millionaire, a movie that introduced us to the brilliant Dev Patel and the stellar Freida Pinto. The film, which also starred Bollywood star Anil Kapoor, was one of its kind and ended up being a phenomenon. A director from the West came to India, mainly Mumbai, and decided to make a movie deeply rooted in the country and its pop culture. Danny Boyle indeed needed to do some research, and according to him, he did. The movie was celebrated across the world and this makes us curious about where Boyle drew his inspiration from. What if we tell you that the filmmaker was actually inspired by two Ram Gopal Varma movies?
The Inspiration Behind Slumdog Millionaire
Ram Gopal Varma has been an inspiration for many filmmakers in the country because of his impressive filmography. Not just great movies like Rangeela, Kaun, and Satya, but he is even the reason A.R. Rahman entered the Hindi industry with the Aamir Khan and Urmila Matondkar starrer. Satya is an iconic film, telling the story of the underworld in Mumbai with Satya and Bhiku Mhatre, played by the brilliant Manoj Bajpayee, at the helm of it. But little did we know that it could also inspire Danny Boyle to make Slumdog Millionaire. Read on to learn everything about this interesting update of the day.
Back in the day, everybody was fascinated by the movie made by Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire quickly became a global phenomenon, sweeping eight Oscars the year after its release. Now, over a decade later, we reveal what inspired him. According to IMDb, Boyle was inspired by how Ram Gopal Varma depicted Mumbai in his movies. The way Varma explored the crime world was very fascinating for the English filmmaker. Boyle was most inspired by two RGV movies: Satya and Company.
About Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by Danny Boyle and Loveleen Tandan, Slumdog Millionaire is about a boy who rises from a slum in Mumbai and becomes a contestant on a reality show called Kaun Banega Crorepati. During the course of the show, he looks back at his life and revisits the moments, people, and hardships that shaped him, but he misses Latika, his childhood friend, the most. The film was appreciated globally and featured A.R. Rahman on music and Gulzar on lyrics, both of whom won Oscars for their immaculate work.
Also Read: Shefali Shah and the art of being relatable - Satya to Three Of Us; a range we can only imagine
About Satya and Company
Satya, starring Manoj Bajpayee, J.D. Chakravarthi, Saurabh Shukla, Urmila Matondkar, Shefali Shah, and many other stellar actors, is one of the most celebrated films set in Mumbai. The film was co-written by Anurag Kashyap and featured music by Vishal Bhardwaj and Sandeep Chowta, with songs penned by Gulzar Sahab. The movie is now a cult classic.
Company (2002), starring Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi, Mohanlal, Urmila Matondkar, Seema Biswas, and others, is about a small-time gangster joining hands with a low-level enforcer for a drug syndicate. They rise to become the most dreaded gangsters as they eliminate all their enemies.
You can watch Satya on Sony LIV with your OTTplay Premium subscription. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else in the world of streaming and films.