Manoj Bajpayee: A Life Less Ordinary

As an actor, Manoj Bajpayee is born to run... From one milestone to another, writes Ashwini Deshmukh.

- Ashwini Deshmukh

Manoj Bajpayee has always enjoyed the privilege of being known as an actor’s actor. None of his performances can ever be dismissed as mediocre. In fact, they could well be considered as a master class in acting. In 2016 alone, he won accolades for his performances in Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh, Rajesh Pillai’s Traffic and the recently released, Soumendra Padhi’s Budhia Singh – Born To Run. But the acclaim doesn’t make him smug. “Honestly, I feel I’ve just begun. I don’t like being unnecessarily humble. I don’t ever feel the need to be politically correct. You’ve seen just 25 per cent of what I’m capable of. It’s my responsibility to use the opportunities and showcase myself. It’ll be unfair to my journey if I don’t put out at least half of what I’ve got,” he says self-analytically.

 

It’s his forthcoming attitude that’s made him a regular face on the short film circuit. Manoj has worked in shorts like Jai Hind, Taandav and Kriti recently. He says, “The first short film I did was with Raveena Tandon. That gave me the zeal to do more. It takes just two days to finish a short film. If known faces work in this new format, the audiences will be drawn to watching them on the internet.” He believes this scenario has the ring of a new revolution. He’s even done the math. He explains, “It’ll generate so much revenue. It’ll also promote transparency and get rid of the middlemen. Shirish Kunder’s film Kriti has got 30 lakh views on YouTube so far. If you just charge `100 per view, the revenue can go up to 30 crore in a few days. Web cinema is the next big thing. It’s already knocking on our doors.”