Manoj Bajpayee on his lowest phase of his career: 'Used to go to sets, get chased away with abuses'
Manoj Bajpayee on his lowest phase of his career: 'Used to go to sets, get chased away with abuses'
Manoj Bajpayee is riding on the rave review of his latest release Gulmohar. The OTT drama, which marks Sharmila Tagore’s comeback to the film industry after 12 years, has received much appreciation from critics. For Manoj Bajpayee, this marks another success in his career. But few remember the struggles the Satya actor had to undergo to reach this position in his career. In a recent interview with Ranveer Allahbadia, Bajpayee opened up about the lowest phase of his career and how he was without work for over half a decade.
“The worst days of my life were when I left Delhi for Mumbai. In Delhi, I used to work for 18 hours and sometimes without money, I felt a sense of happiness and creative satisfaction. We didn’t know where our food would come from or had money for the bus fare. I didn’t know English, so I used to keep practising in order to improve my fluency and people would think I was crazy. But I was busy, despite all the difficulties. Yet, when I came to Mumbai, there was no work—no money, and no food.”
The Raajneeti actor said that after a while, he started doubting himself and his acting skills. “I used to be ill frequently, and there was no money. I used to go to sets and get chased away with abuses. I was an outsider. Finally, after much talking, I found roles,” Bajpayee added.
He also revealed that another low phase of his career came after the release of his movie Pinjar. The Partition-drama, which also starred Urmila Matondkar and Sanjay Suri, was much acclaimed critically and even won Manoj Bajpayee the Special Jury Award in the National Film Awards in 2004. However, it failed to work at the box office, marking the start of another career slump for the actor.
“Nobody was offering me anything,” the Family Man star recalled. “The films that are considered my best works today, didn’t work at the box office at the time. In our industry, a terrible movie can become a hit—and then there will be the same pattern of films. But a good one will not do well at the box office, and actors have to sit at home. When I used to go for functions—and believe me I’ve experienced it—cameramen, reporters and anchors, would just turn the mic and not even turn towards me,” he stated.
However, Manoj Bajpayee knew that he could bounce back with just one good film. He got his chance in Prakash Jha’s 2010 political drama Raajneeti. “I knew that if this film worked, I could make a good comeback—and I would be back in the reckoning, and that’s what happened. I knew that Raajneeti had the ingredients for a super hit,” Bajpayee said.
From then onwards, the actor went from one success to another with projects like Gangs of Wasseypur, Special 26 and The Family Man. On the work front, Bajpayee is set to star in the third season of Family Man. The actor is also set to appear in the Netflix series Soup and the movie Bandaa.
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