Manoj Bajpayee Convinced Ram Gopal Varma To Cast Shefali Shah In Satya

Though Manoj Bajpayee’s career got a new lease of life through his success on streaming platforms, most notably as Shrikant Tiwari in Raj & DK’s spy thriller show The Family Man on Prime Video India, his claim to fame happened almost three decades ago as gangster Bhiku Mhatre in Ram Gopal Varma’s 1998 seminal crime drama Satya.

Manoj had initially auditioned for Paresh Rawal’s role Pinky in Varma’s 1997 adventure comedy Daud. After watching Bajpayee’s audition, followed by his performance as Man Singh in Shekhar Kapur’s 1994 cult action adventure film Bandit Queen, Varma suggested Bajpayee to sit that one out and play a bigger role in his next. On Bajpayee’s insistence, Varma cast him as Pushkar in Daud, only to offer him, as per promise, a prominent role in Satya.

But when it came to the casting of Bhiku’s wife Pyaari Mhatre, Varma wasn’t convinced with Bajpayee’s recommendation. “I can take this credit openly. I mentioned Shefali’s name to Ramu,” Bajpayee tells SCREEN in an exclusive interview. “Ramu had his own experience with her in Rangeela. He was not too convinced with her. But one day, I put my foot down because the wife’s casting was still not finalized,” he adds.

Shefali, best known for the television shows Naya Nukkad and Tara in 1993, made her Bollywood debut with a special appearance as Gulbadan, a heroine, in Varma’s 1995 hit romantic comedy Rangeela. After that short role, she met Bajpayee through her Tara co-star and then-husband Harsh Chhaya.

“I know her for many years. She was also doing TV when I was doing Swabhimaan. We actually partied together when we were too young. That’s just nostalgia,” recalls Bajpayee, laughing. Chhaya was his co-star in Swabhimaan, the late 1990s popular television show directed by Mahesh Bhatt, and co-written by Shobhaa De.

“I wanted someone really good as my wife in Satya, and I could only think of Shefali. So, there was a little bit of struggle convincing Ramu, till he got exhausted and said, ‘Okay, call her,'” recounted Manoj, laughing. Another leading lady of Bajpayee that Varma was famously casting against was Raveena Tandon in his 1999 production, Eeshwar Niwas’ action thriller Shool, before she convinced her by showing up in the character’s deglamourized look, much to his surprise.

“I can tell you, with complete confidence, it’s Shefali who’s given these small touches to not only her character, but also make this couple’s chemistry look amazing. It was her contribution to the whole thing,” adds Bajpayee. While he recently played the titular role in Chinmay Mandlekar’s period drama Governor, produced by Shefali’s husband Vipul Shah, he admits it’d be “amazing” to reunite with her in a film backed by Vipul.