Manoj Bajpayee: Professional life, even now, doesn't bother me much

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Manoj Bajpayee a Mayank Shekhar, pubblicata da Mid-Day il 7 marzo 2020. Il testo include il video dell'intervista integrale. Manoj Bajpayee: Professional life, even now, doesn't bother me much:

'In a way, the journey of Bombay cinema's transition into millennial cool, late-90s/early-2000s onwards - what with even 'indies' beginning to merge with Bollywood mainstream - starts from a street in Delhi. It's officially named Sudhir Bose Marg, where colleges of Delhi University's (DU) North Campus are lined up one after another, on either side. If you survey this street late '80s onwards, you'd find Manoj Bajpayee enrolled in Ramjas College, fresh off a train from Bihar. Bajpayee says he also used to perform in plays at the next-door Hindu College. (...) When not representing university in cricket, Vishal Bhardwaj (from Meerut) would score music for those plays. "Rekha, Vishal's girlfriend [later his wife], was learning classical music." To the right of Shishir Bose Marg is Khalsa College, where Saurabh Shukla graduated from. To the left is Hansraj College, where Shah Rukh Khan was reading economics. Few years later, Imtiaz Ali (from Jamshedpur) founded Hindu College's dramatic society. At about the same time as Anurag Kashyap (originally from Benares), who was at Hansraj. "Oh there are just way too many people [to name]," Bajpayee trails off. (...)

The point for most of these DU students - who later made the move to Mumbai and cinema - wasn't quite to crack their final exam in history (Bajpayee), or zoology (Kashyap). It was firstly to gain access to the thriving theatre scene in the Capital. This is where Bajpayee co-founded the theatre company, Act One. It had, among others, Imtiaz Ali, (...) Piyush Mishra: "Shoojit Sircar used to design background music, and assist director. (...) Anubhav Sinha assisted [in direction], and was an important part of the circle." During the day Bajpayee trained under Barry John and his company Theatre Action Group (TAG), to secure a place in Delhi's National School of Drama - that ultimately rejected him four years in a row. It's at TAG that he first met Shah Rukh Khan: "No matter how talented we were, girls always flocked to Shah Rukh." Nothing's changed. "Shah Rukh (...) [era un] English theatre actor, (...) from privileged backgrounds in South Delhi," Bajpayee recalls. While everyone really made it on their own in Mumbai/Bollywood, with zero family connections, the one to scale the steepest climb is still likely to be Bajpayee. He was born into a farmer's family, with six siblings, raised in a village called Belwa in Bihar, bordering Nepal, where there wasn't even a local cinema, growing up. 

Besides, being Bihari meant a strong regional accent that he had to shed, in order to ready himself for multiple parts on stage/film: "If you're an actor, you can't be 'one type' in your real life - a Bihari, for instance. You should be able to play a Marathi, Punjabi... For many years, from my Hindi, many people couldn't figure out where I was from." What he worked on harder still is English. Which is just a language, yes, but it also denotes social access in India: "I always knew English is a tool to compete in this country; to fit in, and get your work done - even if I decide to work in the Hindi film industry. I didn't take it as a burden." It was quite common for Bihari students (nicknamed 'Harries') to land up in DU, to pursue courses in sciences and liberal arts, and take a shot at several entrance exams later - chiefly for the civil services. Bajpayee made sure he spent significantly more time with the few foreign students in his college, rather than the 'Harry gang': "The Kenyan/Nigerian guys would listen to my English, quietly, without judgment. Five hours of my day spent with them meant only speaking English, flat-out - gaining command/confidence over the language. Barry John, who took me under his wing, started giving me roles in English plays as well."

This interview is wholly in English. He's as fluent as it gets. This, he says, surprises his former flat-mates - a full-on 'English medium type' in particular, who'd make fun of him back in college. By the early '90s, having spent enough hours perfecting his diction, reading literature, watching plays, doing street theatre, exposing himself to arts and [alternate] cinema, what he calls the "best days of my life", Bajpayee began to 'belong' - to Delhi's intensely active stage scene. (...) This is the catchment area filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, along with his assistant and casting director Tigmanshu Dhulia, tapped into to cast for Bandit Queen (1994). Post its commercial success, the Bandit Queen 'alumni' pretty much migrated en masse to Mumbai. (...) "Seema Biswas got [the lead role with] Sanjay Leela Bhansali. (...) Saurabh Shukla in fact was the busiest..." And Bajpayee? Because his character Maan Singh in Bandit Queen didn't have many lines, despite strong screen presence, he remained relatively unnoticed. (...) What followed is four years of "no work, consequently no food," and life in a chawl. The primary talent he developed in these years, Bajpayee jokes, is an ability to time his entry into friends' homes - right at the moment when lunch was getting served; or a booze bottle was being cracked open! An important lesson that showbiz teaches most aspirants though, and something that Bajpayee appears to have imbibed as a personality trait, is the strength/perseverance to repeatedly face rejection, and calmly move on, before it breaks one's resolve/spirit. "I am basically dheeth [stubborn]," Bajpayee says more than once to describe himself. (...) 

The turning point in Bajpayee's career is obviously the iconic/immortalised 'Bhikhu Mhatre' from Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998). Varma, Bajpayee reckons, is the man who singularly altered the landscape of Lokhandwala, and indeed (mainstream) Hindi films. Varma was looking for writers for Satya. Bajpayee introduced him to Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla. Satya led to Varma's Kaun? (1999), also written by Kashyap, and a role that Bajpayee says he practically remodelled on the first day of shoot - turning Sameer Purnavale into a goofy bloke, rather than a serious fellow. Shool (1999), written by Kashyap as well, followed. Among Bajpayee's contributions to this lead part of a quiet cop, diametrically opposite to the boisterous Bhikhu, was the name Samar Pratap Singh. Samar was what Bajpayee wanted to officially change his own name to, but couldn't do paper-work for, before the release of Bandit Queen: "Everybody in Bihar is called Manoj." (...) Up until Chandraprakash Dwivedi's Pinjar (2003) that won Bajpayee his second National Award (first was for Satya), what you sense is an unlikely Bollywood star, on an enviable dream run, both at the box-office, and with critical acclaim. And then everything starts tumbling downhill thereafter - for seven frickin' years straight!

He had a fall-out with Varma, when the latter was at the top of his game: "I used to be angry, sensitive - not an easy person to deal with." Kashyap and he parted ways. He was going to both act in, and co-produce Kashyap's debut: "Anurag had mistakenly presumed that I wasn't interested in the role/film." He looks back at the fallow period, "Those weren't easy times. No work was coming [my way]. And whatever was, didn't match up to standards. Also, I was not keeping well." (...) Bajpayee's actual career graph effectively resembles a symmetrical ECG report, with extensive highs and lows, almost equally spaced out! He agrees, "I still call filmmakers for work, if I've enjoyed their recent film. The hardest part was to convince friends that I was still good enough. (...) When I reminisce [those times], I feel only I could've survived it. Because I don't take it to heart. The only thing that could break me is [upheaval on the] personal front. The professional life, even now, doesn't bother me much. Mumbai says it most beautifully, 'Yaar, load kyun leta hai [Why take stress?]'.

"TV crews that used to hound me started putting their cameras down, watching me enter events. I could hear the reporter, who wouldn't even lower his voice, instructing this to his crew. (...) And that happens with work. I was sure I was going to come back. But I needed a role. When I got Raajneeti, I knew this was it." (...) Raajneeti (2010), a major hit that Bajpayee, 51, admits resurrected his floundering résumé. (...) He earned matchless street-cred as Sardar Khan with Kashyap's masterpiece Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012). Kashyap and he are back to being friends. Of which he laughs, "Anurag is incredibly talented, but a loner. If you meet him for three days in a row, he starts hating you!" Further, his most challenging lead role in the current phase could well be as the Marathi, gay Professor Siras in Aligarh (2015): "A leading journalist had written about how actors' careers got ruined, once they played gay characters on screen. My career got made as a result." (...)

In 2019, Bajpayee stormed into mainstream web with Amazon Prime's smashing success, The Family Man, directed by Raj & DK, playing a spy Srikant Tiwari, who could be any other guy on a Mumbai street. As a basic brief, even that sounds a little lot like Bajpayee's breakout role in Satya: "Bhikhu Mhatre was the most real [gangster] that this country has ever seen on the big screen. He could be standing by a restaurant or a paan shop, and you wouldn't know he's a dreaded don. Which is true for people doing extraordinary things - they're extremely unassuming in day-to-day life. Srikant Tiwari has all the same elements, but we went a little further ahead in this realistic direction - he's even more casual, nervous, anxious [than Bhikhu]." If life/career must indeed be shaped into a circle, let's look at Bajpayee's last major film, Sonchiriya (2019) that (...) is set in the same time-frame and location (ravines of Chambal) as Bajpayee's debut, Bandit Queen. Like with his debut, Bajpayee appears as a quiet dacoit named Maan Singh. It's directed by Abhishek Chaubey (...) who, like his mentor (and Bajpayee's contemporary) Vishal Bhardwaj, went to Hindu College, from the same Sudhir Bose Marg in Delhi'.

Special 26 : Recensione

[Blog] Recensione di Special 26 (2013), il nuovo film di Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday!). Con Akshay Kumar, Manoj Pajpai, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill e Kajal Aggarwal.

Le prime del 24 ottobre 2012: Chakravyuh

Chakravyuh, diretto da Prakash Jha, è un film a sfondo politico che esplora il controverso tema dei naxaliti. Nel cast Arjun Rampal, Abhay Deol, Manoj Bajpayee, Kabir Bedi e Om Puri. La pellicola è stata proiettata qualche giorno fa in prima mondiale al 56esimo British Film Institute London Film Festival. Trailer. Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Prakash Jha a Priya Gupta, pubblicata da The Times of India il 28 luglio 2012. Done with politics not with making political films: Prakash Jha: 

'Your next film Chakravyuh deals with Maoism and you travelled through the Red Corridor to research for it. What was the experience like?

The root cause for this social unrest is primarily our feudal mindset which creates systems to benefit a few and exploit the rest. Our democracy begins and ends with an election. The problem with democracy is that unless it has equal participation by everybody in the real sense it does not work. The Maoists feel that when the country was not independent they could live in the forest and survive. Post independence the government has taken over their land, they feel left out as they have no access to a better life. The government communicates with them through forest officials and guards who exploit them. (...) So while they are denied the benefits of development, the khakhiwalas [gli agenti] also exploit them. The backlash started in Naxalbari, in Bengal, over a contentious piece of land. When they were denied the land which was theirs, the Naxals got together and killed the landlord. That’s how the principle of wresting back land through force was established. The so called ‘Red Corridor’ covers more than 250 districts. These are areas which are liberated zones meaning that they do not operate under the government of India. As long as the conflict was restricted to these areas it did not affect us, but the conflict in Manesar at the Maruti factory is now suspected to have been triggered by the Naxals. So the conflict from the jungles is coming to industry. There are educated people from universities like Mumbai, Nagpur, Osmania, JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University] from where people are being recruited. My concern is that this movement is coming to our neighborhood. And so if this discontent comes to Dharavi, how will you save Mumbai? Through my film I am bringing this issue in the public domain and trying to warn the population of this country to wake up as we are sitting on a time bomb waiting to explode'.

Manoj Bajpayee: interviste

Vi segnalo l'intervista concessa da Manoj Bajpayee a Indiatimes, pubblicata il 12 giugno 2012:

'You were never the one to be seen at movie promotions. Isn't the current campaign - unfamiliar territory - tiring you?

Things have changed a lot; the fact that everything is temporary was perhaps never as true as it is now. (...) I faced situations where the producer could not ensure much visibility for my movies, sometimes from lack of funds, or from other reasons.

Such as?

1971 is the prime example! It is one of the best films of my career. (...) It was the first real film on the Army in a very long time. (...) So I don't know whether the promotions work or not (...) but I am not going to find out. Sometimes, publicity can be a brain dead thing, but I say, let it be, if it is working for a film, I am available, because I have suffered the cost of no publicity - not in one film, but in two, three films very dear to me! If it's fruitful conversation, I am very happy - but even when it is not, I tell people, no, I don't mind it (laughs)!

Some scandals, some fights, may help?

(Laughs) I am not somebody who would like to show his emotions publically. I may be able to speak to you one-to-one, but if we were to be speaking in front of ten people right now, I would not really say much. That's a personality defect. But I am working on it. (...) I have seen the consequences of not having attention for my film, so I am prepared to change myself in some ways to get it. And this film is for the people - it is not for drawing room conversation, that's very clear to me. (...)

It's far easier to visualize you as the protagonist for a film like Shool - upholding a certain line of thought. In Zubeidaa, there's a fair shade of grey in the protagonist, and moving further, in Gangs of Wasseypur (since I've seen the film and the readers haven't) there's a lot of grey (...)

There's nothing right about this person; this is why this role is so interesting. He has no sense of right and wrong, he has no sense of morality. He leches at this girl, openly, and the next day he goes and kills someone who is harassing a girl. It's a contradiction, but not for him, since he has no sense of right or wrong. What he's doing right now is right for him.

I assume, for you, a grey character is more difficult to execute?

It's much more difficult to execute. Much more! (...) One of the most difficult shots. Reemma is cooking, and I am looking at her back. (...) Now that's something that is not from my world. (...) If I have found a girl attractive, sometimes we have managed to say it, sometimes you have stayed in touch over the phone. (...) But to just lech at someone's back and accompany it with such a voyeuristic, orgasmic expression is something I have never experienced in my life (laughs)... (...)

You get a main lead after quite some time and you're still not a hero, but quite possibly the wickedest man in the script?

This is possibly the first time in Indian cinema in a while. (...) There's nothing right about him. (...) I wouldn't have thought I could pull off this role, frankly. (...)

How are you looking forward to having your family watch your super lecherous avatar on screen?

I am scared! I am going to tell them to go one by one and see it alone. Please. It will be very embarrassing if my brothers and sisters watch it with my parents; it will be quite an issue in the family! We basically come from a small village near the Nepal border; the family sensibilities are like that. (...)

You seem to be quite busy at the moment.

I have never been this busy, never had this much work in my career, in my life. Nobody still believes that I did no work for a year after (...) Satya. There were no directors for people like me. An Anurag Kashyap was still trying to prove himself. That crop of directors that are around today - they weren't there. I often feel that all this came five years late for me, and I am jealous of the actors in their prime who are able to work with such directors today. Even Nawaz (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) has got his due very late; he's also a victim of no directors being around when he was entering the industry.

And the likes of you, Nawaz, Irrfan [Khan] have been conspicuous by their absence from the 100-crore club of movies, haven't you? (...)

Are we actually welcome there? No, we are not. And I have come to terms with it. If somebody is not opening the door for you, I will not feel bad; I'd rather knock on another door. But the painful time was when there was only one door, and all the other houses were walled; there were just no doors. Today, even today, if I like a director's work, I pick up the phone, call his number, and ask him for work. (...)

There must be young people trying to break into cinema who come to you for advice. What do you tell them?

Yes, many of them come, but I don't know what to tell them, there are no easy answers. You have to keep going to people, you have to keep auditioning. In my time, you didn't even have the culture of auditions. I still remember pestering Mahesh Bhatt during a lunch break to switch on his camera. And I was so insistent - so aggressively insistent - that he actually switched on his camera and took my audition. Acting is my passion, not celebrity status. I left theatre only because theatre was not paying me anything and I was not getting any younger. I tell young people to ask themselves whether they want to enter acting for the sake of acting, or for something else that it will give them - because then it can break you. (...) I wanted only acting. Nothing through acting.

Your take on just wanting to act, not the fringe benefits, is rather philosophical, isn't it? (...)

I am always conscious of my own mortality. Guru Dutt isn't here anymore, Raj Kapoor was here, he's gone... My story isn't going to be any different. If I can move towards the very end of my lifespan doing what I want to do, that, for me, is the biggest achievement'.

Vi propongo anche un corposo estratto dall'intervista concessa da Manoj a Sonil Dedhia, pubblicata ieri da Rediff. Manoj Bajpayee: Never been so busy in my entire career:

'You recently went to the Cannes Film Festival with Gangs of Wasseypur. How was the experience?

Cannes is just amazing. The feedback for the film and my role was quite exhilarating. I was surprised when I saw the French and people from other continents who couldn't understand the language give a standing ovation to the film. The place is buzzing all the time. I curse myself for not being there earlier but from next year I'll make sure even if my film is not there I go there for a holiday with my family during the film festival. (...)

What was it about Gangs of Wasseypur that appealed to you?

It's a film where I have completely changed as an actor. I have changed my approach to acting. I have unlearned things as an actor and it was very difficult for me to do that. I was risking a lot of things with this film. My whole approach to my role was completely different. I didn't want anyone to know that this is the Manoj Bajpayee they have seen earlier. A lot of people told me not to take up this role but I stood by my decision. Also, I felt that I was in the safe hands of Anurag Kashyap who gave me an opportunity to re-define myself as an actor.

You have earlier played characters with grey shades but your character in Gangs of Wasseypur looks quite unusual.

Well, you will have to pay for the ticket and watch me on the screen (laughs). On a serious note, there is nothing right about my character Sardar Khan. This is why this role is so interesting. He has no sense of right and wrong, he has no sense of morality. He loves sex and he doesn't mind killing people. He leches at a girl, forces her to sleep with him and the very next day he goes and kills someone who is harassing a girl. He lives for the moment and what he does at that time is right for him. In spite of him having so many flaws and vices, I had to make my character look adorable, which was very tough.

Most of your films have been set in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the same region where you come from. Does acting in such films come naturally to you?

Nothing comes naturally to me. I reject the idea that if the story is set in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar it will come naturally to me. Accent doesn't make you an actor. It is the approach and the performance of an actor that count. Performance doesn't come naturally just because you come from a particular region. Getting into the skin of this character was quite a gruelling task. I think it's the toughest performance of my career. (...)

You have worked with Anurag as a writer. How was he as a director?

Anurag is a very easy director. He gives complete freedom and makes things very easy for his actors. He understands the suffering and insecurities of an actor. He's one of those rare directors who can relate to their actors. That is the reason you see fantastic performances in all his films. He has evolved a lot as a filmmaker.

There was a lull in your career before Raajneeti.

Not many people know that I was not well. My shoulder was in bad shape. I couldn't even move my hand. For two years I had to lie low and listen to and read all the false reports that were written by the media. I lost a lot of projects that I had in hand. But, yes, I am here promoting my film today and I am also busy with my other films (smiles).

How did you deal with the situation?

I was unfazed by it. My priority was to get myself fit. I missed out on a lot of films, which I would have loved to be a part of. I suffered a lot. I was without work and money. I was spending everything that I had saved. It was the most challenging phase of my life. At the same time, some people came out in support. Prakash Jha offered me Raajneeti and subsequently Aarakshan when I needed it the most.

When you look back on your career, do you think filmmakers have not been able to use the potential that you have as an actor?

I think not even 25 per cent of my potential has been utilised. I still have the same passion and the hunger that I had when I started my career. I am in search for great roles all the time. I hope things will get back to normal and directors will keep coming to me, give me challenging roles and keep putting my talent to good use (smiles). (...)

How is your equation with Ram Gopal Varma?

My equation with Ram Gopal Varma will never change. I will always be indebted to him. Whatever I am today is because of him and I don't think that my equation with him will ever change'.

Le prime del 22 giugno 2012: Gangs of Wasseypur I

Tutta l'India ne parla da quasi due mesi, ossia da quando ne era stata annunciata la prima mondiale, in edizione integrale, alla Quinzaine des réalisateurs al Festival di Cannes 2012. Gangs of Wasseypur, secondo quanto dichiarato dal regista stesso, è il prodotto più commerciale della carriera di Anurag Kashyap. GOW è un epico gangster movie che copre 60 anni e tre generazioni. La prima parte viene ora distribuita nelle sale del Paese. Nel cast Manoj Bajpayee e Nawazuddin Siddiqui. La colonna sonora, composta da Sneha Khanwalkar, ha infiammato il pubblico con il licenziosissimo brano Hunter. Vi propongo anche i video di Womaniya e Tain Tain To To. Kashyap ha dichiarato: 'My film has 25 item songs in it. Every character is an item. In fact, the entire film is an item'. Trailer.

Vedi anche:

- Festival di Cannes 2012: il testo raccoglie video, articoli, interviste e recensioni (italiane).

- Intervista concessa da Nawazuddin Siddiqui a Sonil Dedhia, pubblicata da Rediff il 6 giugno 2012:

'What is the perception of Indian cinema in Cannes? 

All this while they had a notion that only meaningless film with a lot of dance and drama were made in India. To a certain extent that is true, but in the last couple of years a different kind of cinema has evolved. A lot of people in Bollywood laugh at films made in Malegaon, which is how our films were regarded in the west. They are now realising that good cinema is being made in India. They like our films because the kinds of films we are making are completely different. (...)

What is the best compliment that you received at Cannes?

A Frenchman who had seen both my films told me, 'You did a brilliant job in Gangs Of Wasseypur.' When I asked him about my performance in Miss Lovely he was shocked, as he didn't realise that I was a part of the film. For an actor it is a kind of compliment that people see you in different roles and fail to recognise you. It shows the kind of range and versatility that an actor has'.

- Manoj Bajpayee: interviste, 19 giugno 2012

- Anurag Kashyap: Gangs of Wasseypur almost did not get made, 21 giugno 2012

- Gangs of Wasseypur I: colonna sonora e recensioni, 23 giugno 2012

- ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ is like a virus, 8 luglio 2012

- Le prime dell'8 agosto 2012: Gangs of Wasseypur II, 5 agosto 2012

- Anurag Kashyap on Gangs of Wasseypur, a decade later, 8 maggio 2022

- Gangs of Wasseypur: Join the gang, 8 giugno 2022

- The hinterland strikes back, 1 luglio 2022