Manoj Bajpayee says wife Shabana felt The Family Man was a ‘TV serial’, asked him not to do it: ‘Sab khatam kar doge’

Recently, indianexpress.com caught up with Manoj Bajpayee to talk about his film Bandaa. Most of his roles leaves one with the above questions. The actor does manage to infuse life into his characters making it an extension of his personality. We thus asked Bajpayee to pick three of his roles and decode them for fans. The shy actor said it would be unfair for him to pick just three and thus asked the director Apoorv Singh Karki to name his favourite films, and he would share stories behind them.

Apoorv on his part chose Shool, Gangs of Wasseypur and The Family Man. What followed was Manoj Bajpayee taking us on a trip down memory lane as he shared some beautiful anecdotes from his past projects.

Read on…

Shool (1999)

“Some other film star was doing the film first and Mr Varma was not even thinking about me. Anurag Kashyap was writing it and I really wanted to do it. I often told Anurag that please suggest my name to him (Ram Gopal Varma). I don’t know how it happened. One day RGV called me and said, ‘Manoj, you will do the role.’ I was over the moon as I really wanted to play the protagonist and shape this hero the way I wanted my heroes to be. I started working on it, rehearsing for the part and also got involved with casting, as I was so attached to it. I can proudly say that I would give my suggestion and recommendations.

Even during Satya, I remember seeing a poster of a play and asking for details about the actor. It was Makrand Deshpande. I got his number, asked him to meet Ramu and he was finalised. Anurag and I have picked so many actors. It’s interesting that in Satya, most actors were from Maharastra, while Shool had most North Indian actors. It just added so much more to the authenticity”.

Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

“So when GOW came my way, I was not in talking terms with Anurag Kashyap. We had a tiff. And one night, around 10 pm, he called me saying ‘Baju bhai, will you work with me?’ He said he was in his office, and as my driver had gone back, I asked him to send me his car. I reached there and he started reading the script. Half way through the narration, I realised I wanted to do the film. I asked him which role was he offering me, he said the lead protagonist — Zeeshan Khan.

I asked Vasan Bala, who was assisting Anurag at that time, to call for wine. Anurag finished the reading and said that he will make it into two parts, but he hasn’t started writing the sequel yet. He told me that this is where my character will end and asked me if I was interested. I said let’s have wine. He asked me again if I will do the film, and I shot back, ‘Pagal aadmi (Crazy man), why the hell am I asking for wine? It means I am doing it.’

However, I told him that Zeeshan Khan doesn’t ring a bell, and he asked me to pick a name. That’s how you guys got Sardar Khan. I actually love to give names to my characters. Even in Shool, the original name was Sanjay Pratap Singh, I requested Anurag to name it Samar Pratap Singh. Then in Satya, it was just Bhiku. But when I started working on the back story, I realised that it would be apt to name him Bhiku Mhatre.”

The Family Man (2019)

“Mukesh Chhabra called that Raj and DK want to meet you to narrate a series. I was like yaar, I have seen these web series, it’s all about sex, violence and thrill. I may not be interested. But he assured me that it’s a very different one. Also, there was news that Akshay Khanna was doing this show, and since I do not like taking other actors’ work, I said if that’s true, even if I like the project, I will not do it. But Mukesh was adamant that it was not the case and I went to meet them the next day. With the 20 minutes of narration they gave, I was totally sold. In that brief meeting, I could see myself becoming the character and also the kind of freedom I would get to play it the way I want to.

They sent me two episodes, and I loved it and started making notes. I think the character notes for Srikant Tiwari were the most I have made. I would remember something, rush back to my notebook and pen it. I had even decided to not work for eight months and was working out a lot.

So now, that became an issue with my wife (actor Shabana). She thought I was doing some kind of a serial and ask me what is this OTT. I told her that it’s different and she was like, ‘What is the need of money? Why are you ruining your career? Sab accha khasa chal raha hai. Sab khatam kar doge (Everything is going well, why do you want to ruin it). I told her how shows like Narcos have become popular. ‘But eventually it’s a serial only na?’ she would tell me. I think she didn’t realise the strength and potential of OTT till she saw the first season of The Family Man.”

Manoj Bajpayee’s latest project Bandaa is streaming on ZEE5.