Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma, often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television. Varma has directed films across multiple genres, including parallel cinema and docudrama noted for their gritty realism, technical finesse, and craft. Regarded as one of the pioneers of new age Indian cinema, he was featured in the BBC World series Bollywood Bosses in 2004. In 2006, Grady Hendrix of Film Comment, published by the Film at Lincoln Center cited Varma as "Bombay's Most Successful Maverick" for his works on experimental films.
Company is a 2002 Indian Hindi-language crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Jaideep Sahni. The film stars Mohanlal, Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi, Manisha Koirala, Antara Mali, and Seema Biswas. It marks Mohanlal's debut in Hindi cinema. It is the second film in the Indian Gangstertrilogy and a sequel to Satya (1998). Company follows Chandu, a henchman of a gangster named Malik, with whom he forms a rapport that eventually falls apart after tension arises between them.
Isha Koppikar is an Indian actress, politician and model who has mainly acted in Hindi films. She has also featured in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Marathi films. She started her career in South Indian languages films in the second half of the 1990s and focused on Bollywood films in the early 2000s.
Satya (transl. Truth) is a 1998 Indian Hindi-language crime film, produced and directed by Ram Gopal Varma; written by Saurabh Shukla and Anurag Kashyap. It stars J. D. Chakravarthy, Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpayee, alongside Saurabh Shukla, Aditya Shrivastava and Paresh Rawal. It is the first of Varma's Gangster trilogy about organised crime in India. The film follows Satya (Chakravarthy), an immigrant who comes to Mumbai looking for a job, befriends Bhiku Mhatre (Bajpayee) and is drawn into the Mumbai underworld.
Shabri is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Lalit Marathe and produced by Ram Gopal Varma. It is about a woman, played by Ishaa Koppikar, who becomes the first female crime lady in Mumbai. The film was completed in 2005 and was showcased as the opening film at the Rome Film Festival, and was also premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival. The film was officially released worldwide on 26 August 2011.
Risk is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Vishram Sawant. It stars Vinod Khanna, Randeep Hooda, Tanushree Dutta, Zakir Hussain, Yashpal Sharma and Anant Jog in the lead roles. The movie is based on the Mumbai underworld. Randeep Hooda plays the role of an honest cop, Suryakant Satam, fighting against the might of a Bangkok-based don Khalid Bin Jamal, played by Vinod Khanna. The music was composed by BapiTutul, Akbar Sami and Sandesh Shandilya, and the lyrics are written by Sandeep Nath, Amitabh Verma and Sudhir. The background score is composed by Amar Mohile. This film was remade in Telugu as Mahankali (2011) starring Rajasekhar, Madhurima and Pradeep Rawat.
Randeep Hooda is an Indian actor, writer, producer, director and equestrian, known for his work predominantly in Hindi cinema and few English films. Hooda made his Hindi film debut with Monsoon Wedding (2001). He had a turning point in his career with the gangster film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) and also acted in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster (2011), Rang Rasiya (2014), Highway (2014) and Sarbjit (2016), Swatantrya Veer Savarkar (2024) and Ungli (2014).
Rang Rasiya, titled Colours of Passion in English, is a 2014 Indian drama film written and directed by Ketan Mehta, based on the life of the 19th century Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma. It was released bilingually in Hindi as Rang Rasiya and in English as Colours of Passion. The film was a cinematic adaptation of the novel Raja Ravi Varma by Ranjit Desai. It stars Randeep Hooda as Raja Ravi Varma and Nandana Sen as his love interest.
Vishram Shivram Sawant is an Indian film director. He made his directorial debut with D, which is about the meteoric rise of a fictional underworld don, Deshu, which appears to be loosely based upon Dawood Ibrahim's career. His next film was Risk in which the same actor plays an errant police inspector with Vinod Khanna as villain.
Right Yaaa Wrong is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Neeraj Pathak, starring Sunny Deol and Irrfan Khan along with Konkona Sen Sharma, Isha Koppikar, Aryan Vaid and Govind Namdeo. This film was shot in Film City and released on 12 March 2010, under the banner of Eros. The film is based on the 1995 American film Above Suspicion.
Department is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt and Rana Daggubati in lead roles. Released on 18 May 2012, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics.
Gangster is an Indian Hindi and Telugu-language crime thriller franchise written, directed and produced by Ram Gopal Varma. It is based on the Indian mafia organization D-Company, known to be run by Dawood Ibrahim. The first film came in 1998: the critically acclaimed Satya, later followed by Company and then the prequel D, with storylines based on the Mumbai underworld. Satya has won six Filmfare Awards, including the Critics Award for Best Film. These three films make up the original Gangster trilogy.
Satya 2 is a 2013 Indian crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma. Shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, the film stars Puneet Singh Ratn (Hindi), Sharwanand (Telugu), Anaika Soti and Mahesh Thakur. The film tells the story of Satya, an immigrant who comes to Mumbai aiming to refashion the mumbai underworld. The film is the fourth installment of the Gangster series, unrelated to the original trilogy.
Prawaal Raman is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. He has written and directed films like Darna Mana Hai (2003), Gayab (2004), Darna Zaroori hai (2006), 404 (2011) and Main Aur Charles (2015).
Main aur Charles is a 2015 Bollywood crime film written and directed by Prawaal Raman and produced by Cynozure Networkz. The film is a fictitious thriller inspired by true events; it is told from the perspective of the Indian cop, Amod Kanth, who handled the case of the Indian Origin French serial killer Charles Sobhraj who was known as the bikini killer. The film opened on 30 October 2015 to positive reviews across India. However, it was a box office flop, grossing ₹80 million against a ₹100 million budget.
Killing Veerappan is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language biographical crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma, who co-wrote the film with K. Balaji. The film is based on the events leading to Operation Cocoon to capture or kill Indian bandit Veerappan. Featuring Shiva Rajkumar in the central role touted to be based on N. K. Senthamarai Kannan, the then Superintendent of police, with the Indian Special Task Force, and the spy who masterminded Operation Cocoon.
Veerappan is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language biographical action crime film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film is based on the real-life Indian bandit Veerappan and the events leading to Operation Cocoon, a mission to capture and kill him. The film is a remake of the Kannada film Killing Veerappan (2016) starring Shiva Rajkumar. The film stars Sandeep Bharadwaj, Sachiin J Joshi, Lisa Ray and Usha Jadhav.
Fixerr is a 2019 Indian web series created by Sakett Saawhney and produced by Riti Sawnhney under her banner Ekomkar Pictures for ALT Balaji, It is also available on ZEE5. The series marks the Web debut of actor Shabir Ahluwalia and stars Mahie Gill, Karishma Sharma, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Varun Badola in supporting roles. It was made available on ALTBalaji and ZEE5 platform on 7 October 2019.
Operation Fryday is Indian Hindi-language film, written and directed by Vishram Sawant. The film stars Randeep Hooda, Suniel Shetty and Nitu Chandra in lead roles. The film was released on 26 January 2023 by ZEE5 on its official OTT platform.
Swatantrya Veer Savarkar is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language film on the life of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. It is directed, co-written, and co-produced by Randeep Hooda, who also plays the titular role of Savarkar. It was released in theatres on 22 March 2024.
