Renowned filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who worked with Manoj Bajpayee on the comedy drama 'Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!' (2000), has revealed that he found it challenging to work with the actor.
In an interview, Hansal mentioned that whenever he brings up his difficult working experience with Manoj, the actor dismisses it, blaming his behaviour on his youth. However, Hansal went on to say that "I was young too, I didn’t know what was happening either."
At a year-end roundtable hosted by Cinema Express, Hansal said that he prefers working with actors he has already built up a rapport with, and that an actor doesn't have to be overly expressive to be etched in his mind. Take, for example, Rajkumar Rao; the 'Stree' actor was recommended by the likes of director Anurag Kashyap and casting director Mukesh Chhabra, and they have collaborated on six projects since.
“It’s about the connection that you feel. Manoj has major mood swings. We made 'Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!' in 2000, and he was a pain in that film,” he said.
Hansal took a trip down memory lane and said, “But at heart, he’s a nice guy. He’s not a bad person. You get that vibe. When we were working together, I used to get very irritated. I would ask, ‘Manoj, why are you behaving like this?’ That was the time when Manoj would take the character and just go. I don’t know how he decided that the character should be irritable, but he thrust it on everyone. Everyone used to run away from him. Saurabh (Shukla) used to be like, ‘I went to speak to him and he was mean. What’s wrong with him?'”
Saurabh Shukla and Manoj Bajpayee worked on a crime-drama film 'Satya' (1998), which received immense praise, and elevated the latter's popularity. Manoj and Hansal also went on to collaborate on 'Aligarh' (2015), which received positive responses, and has been described as the film the director is most fond of.
As for current projects, Manoj will next be seen in the crime series 'Killer Soup,' while Hansal is prepping for the release of 'The Buckingham Murders.'
