Days before Father’s Day, Manoj Bajpayee hurriedly left Mumbai for his native village Belwa in the Bettiah district of Bihar to meet his ailing father.The patriarch suddenly took ill. Setting all post-release media interactions for The Family Man aside, Manoj rushed to be by his father’s side.
Manoj’s wife and daughter also accompanied him. The Bajpai family was supposed to take a flight to Gorakhpur and then drive down to Bettiah.
“But we missed our flight.So we had to drive down a much longer route. Fortunately my father is on the road to recovery.Since he is aging the process of healing is taking longer. My brother takes good care of him. I wish I could be there with him more often,”says the Family Man hero currently basking in the super-success of the series that has taken the country by storm.
In 2007 Manoj was travelling to his village in Bihar. The state of the roads being what it is, his car plunged into a ditch. His back took the entire impact. Manoj couldn’t move his hand. For eight months he was in bed.
Says Manoj, “I am very close to both my parents.They named me after their favourite actor Manoj Kumar. My father had to struggle to put my siblings and I through our basic education.From my childhood I dreamt of being an actor. My father supported me in my dream. That’s how a boy from Bettiah with no connections in the film industry dared to venture into cinema.”
Though Manoj’s father (Radhakant Bajpai) likes Manoj’s performance in all his films, the senior Bajapai’s favourites are Satya, Shool, Pinjar, 1971 and yes, The Family Man.
