Manoj Bajpayee never shies away from talking about his personal and professional life. Recently, the actor opened up about his equation with his Sonchiriya co-actor, the late Sushant Singh Rajput. He also revealed how blind articles (gossip reports) would bother Sushant. In a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Manoj Bajpayee said, “Bahut zada, bahut vulnerable tha vo us maamle me. Acha aadmi tha, bahut hi acha aadmi, aur acha aadmi hi affected hota hai. Right? Vo bahut baar aake mujhe puchta tha ki sir mai kya karu? Toh mai usko kehta tha ki yarr tu zada seriously mat le. Mai jaanta hu, kyuki mai bhugat chuka hu,bhugat raha hu, mai abhi tak bhugat raha hu. [He was vulnerable in that matter. He was a good man, and good people are often affected, right? At times, he used to come to me and ask, 'What should I do, sir?' So I used to tell him, 'Bro, don't take it too seriously. I know because I have suffered, I am suffering, I am still suffering.]'” Sushant Singh Rajput died on June 14, 2020.
Manoj Bajpayee also added how he had shared his approach to dealing with such articles with Sushant Singh Rajput. The actor said, “Kuch ek log hai bhai [Sushant Singh Rajput] jo log, jinki filmein chal rahi hai, jo power me hai, unko handle, mai to handle dusre treeke se karta hu. Mai to unke dosto ko bolta hu ki unka bolna ki aake marunga mai tujhe. Kyuki mai jaanta hu ki dosta jaake bolega ki Manoj keh raha tha ki tujhe maarega. Mai to bihari aadmi,mai aise jhagda nahi krta hu kise se. Uske dost ko bolo, ya dost ke dost ko bolo. To dost jo hai, dost ko bolega, dost jaake usko bolega, ki Manoj tujhe maarega. To baat pahunch jaye yahi chahiye na? To hasta tha, Sushant bahut hasta tha. [There are some people, brother, whose films are doing well, who are in power; I handle them differently. I tell their friends that I'll come and beat you up. Because I know that if a friend goes and says that Manoj said he'll beat you up, they'll get scared. I am a Bihari man; I don't pick fights with anyone like that. Tell their friends, or their friends' friends. So, the friend will tell the friend to tell them that Manoj will beat you up. That's all that needs to be communicated, right? So, Sushant used to laugh; he laughed a lot.]”
Then Manoj Bajpayee quoted Sushant Singh Rajput's reply, “Sir yeh aap hi karte sakte ho. Mai nahi kar skata. Mai kaise karu? [Sir, only you can do this. I can't. How can I do it?]”
“But he used to get troubled by those blind articles,” Manoj mentioned.
Speaking about his bond with Sushant Singh Rajput, Manoj Bajpayee said, “Bahut sensitive aur bahut hi intelligent aadmi tha. Aur mai jo mutton bna ke khilata tha set pe uska deewana tha, kyuki basically to bihari tha vo. To jo meat bhaat hum log khaate the, mai banata tha, aur kayi baar khaya usne auer bolta bhi rehta tha ki Manoj bhai aapke ghar aake khana hai. Maine (bola) jaise hi banauga, mai tujhe bulaunga. That was our last talk. And theek uske 10 din ke baad, he passed away. [He was a sensitive and intelligent person. And, he used to love the mutton dish I cooked on the set because he was basically from Bihar. So, the meat and rice that we used to eat, I used to cook, and many times he would eat and say, ‘Manoj bhai, I want to come to your house and eat.' I said, ‘As soon as I make it, I will call you.' That was our last conversation. And exactly 10 days later, he passed away.] God bless his soul.”
Manoj Bajpayee also shared his reaction to Sushant Singh Rajput's death. He said, “I was, like everyone, who was very close to him or around him, shocked, shattered. I was one of them. I just could not believe it. Abhi bhi, jaise mai believe nahi kar paata hu jaise do logo ki mrityu ko lekar ke. Ek Sushant ki, ek Irrfan (Khan) ki. It was too early. It is difficult to come to terms with them going away. Kisi ki age ho jaati hai to aap ussey samjhota kar lete ho. Lekin abhi bas thrive kar rahe the yeh log. They were thriving, they were doing good work. Vaqt aa gya tha in logo ka. Irrfan has been doing so well, nationally, and internationally. Inke nahi hone ka abhi tak ehsaas ho nahi paya. [Even now, I can't believe it. I can't believe the deaths of two people. One is Sushant's and the other is Irrfan Khan's. It was too early. It's difficult to come to terms with them going away. When someone gets older, you can come to terms with it. But they were just thriving. They were doing good work. It was their time. Irrfan has been doing so well, nationally and internationally. I still can't come to terms with their absence.]”
Irrfan Khan died at the age of 53 in Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He was being treated for a colon infection.