bollywood

Updated: Apr 23, 2019 10:31 IST

Actor Manoj Bajpayee has all reasons to celebrate. He turns 50 today and also completes 25 years as an actor! He started his career with Drohkaal in 1994, and his filmography, which includes Satya (1998), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Aligarh (2016) to name a few, features some of the most critically-acclaimed films in Indian cinema. Excerpts from a chat with the Padma Shri awardee.

Are you a birthday person?

It’s not about the number. Numbers matter to people who think they have achieved a lot. For me, life is starting every day, every year. There’s a lot to be done! This year, I am celebrating with friends from the industry. It’s the first time I am having a get-together of this kind. It was on their insistence, saying I should not behave like a stingy man! They all thought they deserve a party not just for my birthday, but since the Padma Shri also happened this year. I have completed 25 years in the industry, which is an impossible industry for an outsider like me. So I gave into their demands!

Manoj Bajpayee arrives to receive Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind(unseen) during Padma Awards 2019, in New Delhi, Saturday, March 16, 2019. ( PTI )

How has the journey shaped up for you to come to this conclusion that it’s an ‘impossible industry’?

You have to be really lucky. Talent alone doesn’t matter in this industry, and everyone knows this. If someone says ‘good films are done’, ‘talent always survives’, there are other factors too, which are far more important. You should be extremely lucky too, and have the common sense to keep changing your path, adjusting and accommodating, without bending on your principles. It’s a small industry, that’s why it’s so difficult. I stayed on the fringe, was never a part of the elite league, but I survived and am still surviving. The audience is going to see a lot of different stuff from me.

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Talking about different stuff, your film Sonchiriya (which didn’t rake in numbers theatrically) is now on a streaming platform and people are reacting positively...

It’s disheartening, the manner in which this film has been dealt with, but that’s the nexus of distributors… most of my films are victims of this. This is not new for me, I take it on my chin every time. But my team members are all very sad, it was heart-melting to see them. I have been a fan of Abhishek Chaubey (director), who upped his game with this film. There are nearly six months left for the year to end, but one thing is for sure, it’s the best film of 2019 regardless of the fact that there are six months to go. At the end of the day, everyone thinks that since Manoj starred in the film, that’s why he’s talking like that. So be it! What is great, is great, whether I am in it, or not. I just hope and pray it gets its due justice on the streaming platform.

Are you happy then, since people must be messaging you about how good the film was, after watching it online?

Messages have started dropping in, but I don’t have any sympathies for these reactions. I don’t take it well. Whenever I get these reactions, I feel if the audience doesn’t go out and see the film, boost the collections… yes, it’s sad and tragic that our quality is decided by the box-office. That’s realism, a fact that if the audiences don’t move out and watch good films at the theatre, people will stop making them. So these kind of reactions don’t flatter me. I don’t feel appreciated at all by these words.

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