Miraculously, Manoj was close to both Mangeshkar and Bhosle. In Aligarh he played a diehard fan of Lataji. And one of his most memorable characters is that of hawaladar Ganpat Bhosle.
It started with a minuscule role in Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen. With The Family Man Manoj went into a new phase of my career.
“I don’t know how big or small that phase is. But I feel the change,in myself and those around me,” says Manoj happy to be at home for his birthday with the two special ladies in his life: wife Shabana and daughter Ava Nayla.
Manoj’s journey as an actor couldn’t have been possible without his father and his wife’s support. Born in Belwa an obscure village of Bihar , his father allowed Manoj ,who was named after his father’s favourite actor Manoj Kumar, to follow his dreams.This was very rare in those days.Every father wanted his son to be an IAS officer ,an engineer or a bank manager. When Manoj announced he wanted to be an actor his father didn’t bat an eyelid. He said he was okay with it as long as Manoj knew whathe was doing.
Manoj wanted to do a stint at the National School of Drama . “But I was rejected not once but four times. I was tempted to go back home to Belwa. But a voice inside me kept saying this was where I belonged.Acting was all I ever wanted to do. Raj Saab(Kapoor)’s song Jeena yahan marna yahan isske siva jaana kahan was written for me,I think.”
Manoj’s big break happened when Ram Gopal Varma gave the actor Satya. What Varma saw in Manoj was “determination…grit…the survival instinct…he wouldn’t budge until I agreed to cast him in Satya. Did I expect him to make the impact that he did? I worked just as hard on Mohit Ahlawat in James.It’s all destiny and of course talent. If you have it in you, no one can stop you. Manoj with no connections in Bollywood proved it.”
Manoj acknowledges Satya as the highest point in his career. Coming from Bihar at the age of 18 to Delhi to do theatre hoping to become an actor in Mumbai, Manoj did Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen hoping it would kickstart his career. Financially and emotionally Manoj was completely broke.When Manoj got Satya, he didn’t tell anyone about it at home I didn’t know where it would go.
The next level in Manoj’s career was achieved with Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle ,Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, Deepesh Jain’s Gali Guleiyan which unknowingly completed his trilogy on loneliness.All three films hurled different levels of challenge for the actor.Manoj says he grew as an actor just by preparing for these three film about desolation. All of them were thematically similar but each was a very different character,so no fixed yardstick could be used to play the three characters.
The third level is where Manoj has reached now. With Amazon’s The Family Man Manoj has become a household name, one of the actors that audiences feel comfortable with.Apparently Manoj is being offered insane amounts of money to do more content on the OTT platform.
But Manoj is not biting the bait. During an earlier interaction Manoj said, “You know me. I never work for money. I am not saying money is not important. I’ve struggled enough to know that without money you are a nobody. So yes I do value money. But not at the cost of my integrity and sincerity. I cannot be dishonest to my work. It would kill me.”
If Manoj had a chance to relive his life he would handle the years of struggle differently. He would call a different set of directors to give him work. Some Hindi films he did back then was only to run his kitchen, he says he should not have done.
Manoj recalls those years of struggle as bleak and defeating. Even his health was not good. “But those days of hardship were a learning experience. I was doing workshops, theatre, meeting friends, going to my native village, spending a lot of time with my family.I now realize that every phase in one’s life, no matter how difficult, is a preparation for the next phase. If I didn’t have Bandit Queen I wouldn’t have The Family Man,” says family-man Manoj Bajpai.
Still a small-town boy from Bettiah in Bihar disbelieving about his suddenly-found stardom. But determined to hold it in his hands, nurture and nourish it until it (stardom) becomes substantial and self perpetuating.Stunning portraits of the negative forces that manoeuvre man’s nature in Satya and Kaun and three popular awards for his performance as the gangster Bhiku Mhatre in Satya did not dim his enthusiasm for serenading on the steep side of stardom.
He could have signed hordes of films after Satya, made precious millions to give his parents and siblings a comfortable life. Instead Manoj chose to reject most of the roles that were offered to him after Satya. “They were all variations on my character as Bhiku Mhatre. If there’s one thing that I won’t do, it’s repeat myself.”
Stay unsafe, Manoj. It’s the only way you can continue to break the ceiling.
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