Director Hansal Mehta recalled the difficulties he experienced with Manoj Bajpayee when they worked together on the film Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar. Appearing on a year-end roundtable organised by Cinema Express, the director said, “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.”
The director recalled, “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 used to be like, ‘I went to speak to him and he was mean. What’s wrong with him?'”
Workwise, in 2023, Manoj was a part of several interesting films. The year started for him with the OTT film Gulmohar also starring Sharmila Tagore. Upon release, it received critical acclaim. After that, he played the role of advocate in Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai. The year concluded for him with Devashish Makhija’s Joram which was well received during its festival rounds. Apart from Killer Soup, he is also doing a film called Despatch.
