Manoj Bajpayee needs no introduction. It won't be wrong to say that the actor, with his impeccable screen presence, has carved a place for himself in our hearts. In a recent interview with Film Companion's Anupama Chopra, Manoj Bajpayee was asked to name “one film that has shaped” him as an actor. He said it was Amitabh Bachchan's iconic film Zanjeer. The Prakash Mehra directorial cemented Big B's position as the “angry young man” of Bollywood. Manoj Bajpayee said, “The film which has made my dream really strong is Zanjeer. What a movie. Mere young mind ko jo hua tha mujhe lagta nahi hai kisi aur film ne utna matter kia tha. [No other film can match what Zanjeer did to my young mind.] I saw that performance and said, ‘yahi karna hai [I want to do this]'.”
On Amitabh Bachchan's evergreen performance, Manoj Bajpayee added, “He was so good. But, I didn't watch it a second time. The reason behind this was I didn't want the mystery and that nostalgia to be ruined.”
In the interview, Manoj Bajpayee was also asked to pick a show or a film that made him jealous. The actor said, “I think it's Vijay Varma's Dahaad. I was like yeah character mujhe milna chahiye tha [I wanted this role]. And, agar abhi Vijay [Varma] sunega toh bolega kya sir aap toh itna kaam kar rahay ho [If Vijay Varma is listening to this, he will be like ‘Sir, you already have so many projects in the kitty.']”
Did you know Manoj Bajpayee loves watching Govinda films? It's his “guilty pleasure”. The actor said, “He is fantastic. That genre…I don't think anyone else can pull it off with that much ease. There is something in him [Govinda].”
Recalling the time when he shared screen space with Govinda in Ganesh Acharya's Money Hai Toh Honey Hai, Manoj Bajpayee added, “I worked with Govinda in Money Hai Toh Honey Hai. The time I had with him in front of the camera. There is so much learning. It was like a very healthy competition. He [Govinda] used to improvise one thing and then I used to improvise something else on top of that. Then Govinda used to come with something else and I used to add a new thing to it... After this, one day the director [Ganesh Acharya] said yaar yahi hota rahe ga kya. Band karo.[Are we going to do this only?]” Money Hai Toh Honey Hai was released in 2008.
Manoj Bajpayee was last seen in Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai.
