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 aid of gangster Dawood Ibrahim . Varma started talking to Haneef out of curiosity and his " obsession with the criminal psyche " , who told him how the underworld operated . 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 '' . 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 . 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 " . He found a strong resemblance with the rivalries between criminals and those between politicians because he felt " human nature is same everywhere " . 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 . The film 's screenplay was written by Jaideep Sahni . '' Company '' was Malayalam actor Mohanlal 's debut role in a Hindi film . He played IPS Veerapalli Srinivasan , a character based on the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai , Dhanushkodi Sivanandhan . Varma described the character as someone who looks " more like a professor and treats crime as a disease and criminals as patients " . The role of Malik was first offered to Manoj Bajpayee who declined it due to date issues . The role eventually went to Ajay Devgn . Varma wanted to keep the mafia boss character calm and composed , which he based on Devgn 's personality . Suresh Oberoi wanted to launch the career of his son Vivek Oberoi in an Abbas-Mustan film but he said he " would like to go through my struggle " . After that , he met Varma , who said he wanted to cast someone as a gangster living in a slum and said Vivek Oberoi " look ( s ) too good for the role " . Oberoi asked Varma for 15 days , during which he stayed in the slums and slept on the floor . He rubbed oils and creams on his body , and sun-bathed daily to look darker for the role . He applied some mud to his face on the day of his meeting with Varma , and was eventually selected for his debut role as Chandu . Manisha Koirala was cast as Saroja , a role which Varma described as very " atmospheric " . Hemant Chaturvedi served as the director of photography and Chandan Arora edited the film . Location filming for the project took place in the slums of Mumbai , Mombasa , Nairobi , Hong Kong , and Switzerland . 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 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 " . 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 " . Varma filmed the song " Khallas " hand-held with 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 "
1993 Bombay bombings
1993 Bombay bombings
Company (film)