Mumbai Ka King Kaun? Bhiku Mhatre! Who doesn't remember this dialogue from Ram Gopal Varma's Satya? Registered in the golden history book of Indian cinema, the gangster drama created a new chapter for aspiring filmmakers to come out in the open and tell raw, rusty and local stories on celluloid. The cult classic starring Manoj Bajpayee, J. D. Chakravarthy, Urmila Matondkar, Shefali Shah, Saurabh Shukla and Paresh Rawal among others completes 25 years today.

On Satya's 25th anniversary, PeepingMoon spoke to Manoj Bajpayee who immortalised the character of Bhiku Mhatre. When asked about the reason for saying yes to the film, the National Award-winning actor said, "I didn't have a choice! I was a struggler who was hardly paid 10k to 15k a month for doing a TV show. I was doing whatever came my way. I was just doing it. Satya was bigger than I expected. I got to play the second lead in a film directed by THE Ram Gopal Varma. I didn't have a choice but to go ahead and do it. I was jumping out with joy."

Talking about what made Bhiku Mhatre stand out, Manoj shared, "Bhiku Mhatre stood out because of his vulnerabilities. The audience watched themselves on-screen and people connected with his background. I don't mean to say people wanted to become criminals but he was definitely aspirational and empowered people belonging to similar cultural and financial backgrounds. I never saw and will never see that kind of relatability now. The audience treated me as their own." 

Satya released on July 3, 1998.