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Today is Manoj Bajpayee’s 55th birthday. Born in a small village in Bihar, Manoj’s first dream was to become an actor. For this he had to struggle a lot from the beginning. He also resorted to lies to reach Delhi for NSD. He told his parents that he was going to Delhi for IAS preparation. Manoj has made his place in the film industry by breaking many barriers.
Learn the story of becoming The Manoj Bajpayee through 10 cases…
Case 1- Used to collect money to drink cold drinks
Manoj Bajpayee was born on 23 April 1969 in Belwa, Bihar. He was the second of 5 siblings. Manoj’s father was a farmer. In such a situation, the financial condition of the family was not very good. Manoj loved cold drinks and kebabs since childhood, but he didn’t have enough money to eat them all.
He used to see these things while passing by a cold drink shop or a kebab shop. They thought to themselves that once they had collected some money, they would enjoy both these things. Then whenever he had money, he would first drink cold drinks and eat kebabs with the remaining money.
Manoj Bajpayee with father and mother. Manoj’s father was a farmer by profession, while his mother was a housewife
Case 2- Father wanted to become a doctor, he was sent to a hostel at the age of 7
Father was a farmer. As a result, Manoj had to do the work from plowing the field to planting. However, the father never wanted his children to farm. The earnings were low, but he taught all the children well. Father wanted Manoj to become a doctor. The reason behind his desire was that he himself also wanted to become a doctor, but his dream was not fulfilled due to lack of 5 lakh rupees. This was the reason why 7 year old Manoj was sent to the hostel.
Manoj revealed on the ‘Anupam Kher Show’ that he still has a grievance against his parents for this matter. He said, ‘Even today I tell my parents that I should not have been sent to a hostel at such a young age. All the older kids there used to tease me a lot.’
Case 3- Decided to go to NSD from class-5 itself
The father thought that his son would become a doctor, but Manoj never had anything else in mind but acting. No one in the family was connected with the film industry, but Manoj’s parents were very fond of watching films. As a child, Manoj also watched films like ‘Jai Santoshi Ma’ 6-7 times with his parents. As Manoj grew older, his passion for acting grew, but he had no idea what to do in the future. Around 5th grade, he read interviews with Raj Babbar, Ompuri and Naseeruddin Shah. The trio spoke about NSD in this interview with Life Journey.
After reading this, Manoj realized that after graduation, he could go to NSD to study acting. At that moment he decided that in future he would study acting in NSD.
Case 4- Went to Delhi after lying to family about becoming IAS
Manoj went to Delhi after passing 12th, but reached here by lying. Manoj’s parents were unwilling to send him to Delhi with the promise that he would become an actor. In such a situation, he told his father, ‘I may not become a doctor, but I will definitely become an IAS and I have to go to Delhi to prepare for it.’
Hearing this, his family sent him to Delhi. After spending 2-3 years in Delhi, Manoj thought of telling the truth to his family. He wrote to his father saying that he had come to Delhi to become an actor. However, the father’s reply to Manoj was very funny. He wrote, ‘Dear son Manoj. I am your father. I know you have decided to become an actor.’ Manoj started laughing after reading this.
This picture is from the time when Manoj Bajpayee was doing theater in Delhi’s Mandi House
Case 5- Friends feared that Manoj would commit suicide after not getting admission in NSD
Manoj took admission in Delhi University for graduation and simultaneously started doing street theatre. After completing his graduation, he failed the first time he took the NSD exam. This disappointed him. His condition worsened due to crying. He had also lost the hope of living. Seeing his condition, his friends feared that he would do something wrong to himself. For this reason some friend was always present with him.
Recovering from this shock, he took the NSD exam again, failed again. After that, Manoj joined Barry John’s acting school. Where along with learning acting, he also taught acting to children by taking a fee of 1500 rupees. After learning acting tricks from Barry John, he took the NSD exam for the third time. This time the professor there said, ‘We can’t take you as a student, but you can work here as a teacher if you want.’
Case 6- Nasib got the first movie Bandit Queen
One day when Manoj was rehearsing, Tigmanshu Dhulia came to him. He told Manoj, ‘Shekhar Kapur wants to meet you in connection with a film.’ Manoj was shocked to hear this and said, ‘Brother don’t joke, even so I am not having a good time.’ On this Tigmanshu said, ‘I am telling the truth. He has seen your photo and wants to meet you in connection with the movie Bandit Queen.’
After hearing this, Manoj went to meet Shekhar Kapur. After the meeting, he was offered the role of Vikram Mallah in the film, but after a while the role went to Nirmal Pandey. Seeing this once again broke Manoj’s heart. It was only a few days after this incident. He was shooting in Kolkata. Then he got a call from Tigmanshu, ‘You should come to Delhi soon. Naseer Sahib has refused to play the character of Mansingh. Shekhar Kapur wants to cast you in this role instead of him.’ Manoj was very happy to hear this and thus became a part of the film Bandit Queen.’
Case 7- Had to live in a chali in Mumbai, had no money even for food
Manoj received 50 thousand rupees for this film. With the help of which he reached Mumbai along with Saurabh Shukla and other colleagues. Here he lived in Chali with seven friends. From 1993 to 1997, he spent these years in various ways. He said in an interview that this period was the worst period of his life. There was no proper place to live and no money to eat. Stayed alone in the room all day. The whole day was spent visiting the offices of big directors and producers. Meanwhile, he was not getting work in any big project.
Case 8- Mahesh Bhatt stopped leaving the industry
Manoj got a job in the TV show ‘Swabhiman’ with a lot of difficulty. Here he used to get 1500 rupees per day. Earlier he was approached for only 10 episodes. Even after this, Manoj wanted to work on the big screen. He was getting weaker day by day due to the struggle. As a result, he decided to leave the industry.
Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhatt saw his work in the show ‘Swabhiman’. He was very impressed with Manoj’s work. He met Manoj. During the conversation, he came to know that Manoj wanted to leave the industry. On this he said, ‘You wait a little. You are a great actor, this city and cinema have become you. Soon your struggle will end.’
Case 9- Ram Gopal Varma was looking for Manoj for 5 years for Satya
What Mahesh Bhatt said proved true after some time. Soon Manoj got work in the film ‘Run’. During the shooting of this film, he met Ram Gopal Varma. When he came to know that Manoj had played the role of Man Singh in the film Bandit Queen, he got up from his chair. Manojan said – ‘Where were you all these days? I have been looking for you for the past 5 years. I want to make a film with you.’ It was after this meeting that Manoj became a part of Ram Gopal Varma’s film ‘Satya’. This film marked a turning point in his career.
Manoj played the role of Bhikhu Mhatre in the movie ‘Satya’. The film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film won 6 Filmfare Awards and 1 National Award
Case 10- Struggled for 7 years even after ‘Satya’, career got back on track after the film ‘Rajneeti’
’After Satya’, from 1999 to 2003, Manoj got good roles in films, but after that he again started struggling for good roles. This struggle lasted for 7 years. From 2003 to 2010, he was looking for good roles. It is not that he did not get work during this period, he got work but it was not of his choice. After such a long struggle, his career got back on track with the movie ‘Rajneeti’. Then came the release of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ in 2012, which made Manoj an overnight star.
Manoj played the role of Virender Pratap in the film ‘Rajneeti’ directed by Prakash Jha. The film also featured actors like Ajay Devgan, Arjun Rampal, Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor. Made in 45 crores, the film collected 145.50 crores
After 2010, 2022 was the only year in which no Manoj film was released. He was a part of great films like ‘Special 26’, ‘Shootout at Wadala’, ‘Satyagraha’, ‘Talwar’, ‘Baaghi 2’, ‘Satyamev Jayate’. Manoj has released a total of 8 films from 2019 to 2023. Out of which only 3 films ‘Sonchiriya’, ‘Sooraj Par Mangal Bhari’ and ‘Joram’ have been released in theatres. All other films were streamed on OTT. His 7 web series is also on OTT.
Now let’s talk about Manoj Bajpayee’s love story…
Married twice, first marriage lasted only 2 months
Manoj was first married to a girl from Delhi. He got married when he was struggling. However, this marriage broke up within 2 months. Reports claimed that Manoj was struggling, which led to the breakdown of his marriage, but he did not let it affect his career and continued to struggle. After entering the film world, he met actress Neha, whose real name is Shabana Raza. Manoj said in an interview that he saw Shabana for the first time at Hansal Mehta’s party. As soon as he saw Shabana, he fell in love at first sight.
Manoj Bajpayee with wife Shabana and daughter. Manoj married Shabana in 2006. He said in an interview to Barkha Dutt that his family members were not displeased with his marriage to a Muslim girl.
What attracted him the most about Shabana was the fact that she would arrive at the party with oil on her hair. In an industry where people are very hesitant about their looks, Shabana did the opposite. Manoj was very impressed by this. Then even after this party, Manoj and Shabana met many times. After a short period of friendship, the two got into a relationship and after dating for about 7 years, the two got married.