A miraculous journey for actors like me, we can’t believe it: Manoj

While the insider vs outsider debate continues to have the industry divided, there’s one point most people raise: If only people with connections were getting chances, how do we justify rank outsiders such as Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui or the late Irrfan making it big?

Ask Bajpayee and prompt comes the actor’s reply, “This is whataboutery. Everybody knows the question and where it’s being pointed at. Don’t run from the question; answer it. Manoj Bajpayee, or the actors they name, their journey has been miraculous, and we ourselves can’t believe it. It hasn’t been a smooth journey, and all the films we have been a part of, we’ve struggled very hard to make it. Don’t forget that.”

This further points at the choice of films that the 51-yearold has made in a career spanning over two decades. While he floored everyone with his performances in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Aligarh (2016), the actor also balanced it with hardcore commercial films such as Tevar (2015) and Baaghi 2 (2018).

His recent release, Bhosle, did the rounds of many film festivals, and finally released on an OTT platform. While he says he’s happy with the response it has garnered, one wonders what he feels about the fact that the film released directly on the web and not theatres. Bajpayee rues that films like these aren’t appreciated enough in theatres. “I don’t know how much the makers would be pleased with this if they released it in theatres with their own money... My point is how many theatres could they release it in? A film like Bhosle, how many shows would exhibitors have guaranteed? How right the timings would have been of the shows? How any days would they have kept it in theatres? What I’m talking about is the fate of all independent films I’ve done,” he tells us.

However, this hasn’t affected his resolve to do good cinema. “I’ll keep doing it. The resolve is bigger and stronger than the treatment that we get. If it released now because of the lockdown, I’m much happier. My whole journey is about becoming better. I’m fascinated and in love with this craft,” Bajpayee concludes.