Manoj Bajpayee Talks About Rejecting Villainous Roles And How That Affected Him

On this episode of The Bombay Journey X Sunday Brunch, our Editor-in-Chief interviewed Manoj Bajpayee while driving through Juhu, eating yummy vada pav and more. There were interesting conversations about his struggle days, Delhi v/s Mumbai cultural shocks, food, travel and more. We also talked about how he was offered villainous roles after the success of Satya and why he refused all of them; read on.

Manoj Bajpayee Rejected Villainous Roles

While chatting about Manoj’s 1998 blockbuster film Satya, he understood that something “miraculous” happened in his film career. After the success, he thought of doing whatever he wanted to do, in terms of his professional career. So, Kamiya asked him whether he could follow this mindset.

Manoj told us that things did not go according to his plan. He said that the entire film industry and casting directors saw his potential only as a villainous character because of his outstanding portrayal of Bhiku in Satya. Therefore, all scripts offered to him were of negative roles.

Also Read: Manoj Bajpayee Was Once Pushed Out Of A Delhi Bus By A Woman

Meanwhile, he made up his mind to reject any antagonist characters on-screen. Even though he was offered roles opposite big names in the film industry, he declined. He stuck by his decision and only started taking up roles and films that he truly wanted to do in the first place.

Post Satya’s Release, He Rejected Films For 8 Months

Continuing on the same topic, Manoj shared with us that he was idle for eight months after the success of Satya because he was offered antagonist characters back-to-back. “It was tough to say no to that much of money and work,” he said. Both these aspects were important to him because, before Satya, he had neither.

He even questioned whether he was making the right decision of rejecting negative roles. But whenever he was in confusion, he would simply think about why he wanted to enter Bollywood. Then he could figure out a way and settle with what he truly desired.

Also Read: Manoj Bajpayee: Mumbai Is A City That Only Interacts With Productive People And Not…

Did you know how he watched Satya on the big screens? Tap the video above to learn about it.

Cover Image Courtesy: Internal