Company (2002 film)

Development

At a producer's house, director Ram Gopal Varma met a man named Haneef, who had been in prison for five years after the 1993 Bombay bombings. He was a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim.^[5] Varma started talking to Haneef out of curiosity and his "obsession with the criminal psyche", who told him how the underworld operated.^[6] During that time, the media was circulating stories about the conflict between Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, who had a fallout and wanted to kill each other, thus giving Varma the idea for Company.^[6] During his research for Satya (1998), Varma found out several things he could not incorporate into one film, especially the police procedures, because there was too much information.^[6]

Varma said he drew inspiration for the supporting characters and scenes from the staff of his own production company. He said Haneef's version of the underworld war gave him a story while his research gave him the "atmosphere".^[6] He found a strong resemblance with the rivalries between criminals and those between politicians because he felt "human nature is same everywhere".^[6] Varma was also inspired by the September 2000 attack on Rajan in Bangkok, which was perceived as the intelligence agencies pitting one gang against another. He later met several crime reporters, police officers and associates of gangsters regarding the research of the film.^[7] The film's screenplay was written by Jaideep Sahni.^[8]

Casting

Company marked Malayalam actor Mohanlal's debut in Hindi cinema.^[2] He portrayed IPS Veerapalli Srinivasan, a character based on the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Dhanushkodi Sivanandhan.^[9] Varma described the character as someone who looks heroic and "more like a professor and treats crime as a disease and criminals as patients".^[10] Kamal Haasan was first considered for the part, but Varma later replaced him with Mohanlal, feeling Haasan's "stylized" acting might not fit the raw and realistic tone he wanted for the film.^[11] Varma had first offered the role of Malik to Shah Rukh Khan. However, upon narrating the story to him, he felt that Khan's body language did not suit the character.^[12] Ajay Devgn was then finalized then for the role.^[9] Varma wanted to keep the mafia boss character calm and composed, which he based on Devgn's personality.^[9][13] Abhishek Bachchan was the initial choice for the role of Chandrakant Aangre, but declined due to other commitments at the time. Varma then cast newcomer Vivek Oberoi.^[14] Upon meeting Varma, who said he wanted to cast someone as a gangster living in a slum and told Oberoi he looked too good for the role, Oberoi asked Varma for 15 days, during which he stayed in the slums and slept on the floor.^[14] He rubbed oils and creams on his body, and sun-bathed daily to look darker for the role.^[15] He applied some mud to his face on the day of his meeting with Varma, and was eventually selected for the role of Chandru.^[14] Rinkle Khanna was cast as Saroja, but was replaced by Manisha Koirala a fews days into shooting.^[16]

Filming

Hemant Chaturvedi served as the director of photography and Chandan Arora edited the film.^[8] Location filming for the project took place in the slums of Mumbai, Mombasa, Nairobi, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.^[7][15] The film's prologue scene, in which eagles are flying over the city, was the final scene to be filmed. Varma asked his cameraman to take a few shots of the city to use as inserts. While he was filming, the eagles were flying; Varma said the footage reminded him of the opening scene of Mackenna's Gold (1969) and was "seized by the desire to somehow incorporate them in the film". Instead of using it as an exterior cut, he used it for the opening to "create drama".^[6] For the opening sequence, Varma wrote and used a fake informational voice-over about eagles waiting for months for their prey because it was "profound-sounding".^[6] Varma filmed the song "Khallas" hand-held with a camera "as a guest at a seedy disco where people find it difficult to move around" because he did not want to have a "picture-perfect composition".^[10]

Critical response

Company received critical acclaim upon release. Taran Adarsh said the film has "a new language, a language that's even more hard-hitting when compared to its predecessors". He also praised Devgn's performance and said, "the actor takes to this complex character like a fish takes to water".^[18] Ziya Us Salam of Idlebrain.com called it "the kind of new century fare, which tells you to welcome a cinema with muted colours, snooping camera angles and almost unrelieved suspense", and added, "It is a grim film which lives in stilted frames, which thrives on silhouettes".^[26] Sheela Raval of India Today wrote that there is a "raw feel to the film but there are no rough edges ... given the amount of information Varma had collected on the subject and his desire to package it all in the three-hour plus production, the film almost ascends to the level of a well-made documentary".^[7]

Jyoti Shukla of Rediff.com called it a "fast-paced movie" that is "anchored by brilliant performances". She praised the performances of Mohanlal, Devgan and Oberoi, and said they are "a treat to watch".^[19] Derek Elley of Variety wrote; "By Bollywood standards, a dark and realistic look at the Mumbai underworld through the battle between a powerful don and his vengeful former sidekick, Company manages to cater to Hindi cinema norms while feeding the viewer something a little different."^[27] In 2010, Raja Sen wrote in his review; "This finely plotted duel between two gangsters left us battered, bruised and craving more".^[28]

Box office

Company was made on a production budget of ₹70 million (US$730,000).^[7] It opened to 100 per cent occupancy in Mumbai and grossed ₹11.8 million (US$120,000) on its opening day.^[20] It went on to collect ₹111 million (US$1.2 million) worldwide, which included ₹60.1 million (US$620,000) from the Indian box office, in its first week.^[20] The film's first-week theatre occupancy was 87 per cent in Delhi, Punjab, Hyderabad, and Nagpur.^[29] In its entire run, Company grossed ₹238 million (US$2.5 million) in India and ₹250 million (US$2.6 million) worldwide.^[20]