It has been three years since Manoj Bajpayee has had a theatrical launch, however the actor ain’t complaining. Instead, he has been making his presence felt within the OTT area with initiatives releasing one after the opposite. This 12 months, two of his movies — Gulmohar and Sirf Ek Bandaa Kafi Hai — obtained immense reward. As each the movies had been just lately screened on the ongoing 54th IFFI in Goa, Bajpayee is just grateful for all of the love and adulation.
“I have done very few films where I could experience those kind of euphoria inside the theatre. Satya (1998) is one of them. It gives me a high for a very different reason. I was thinking that in this industry, I’ll only do character roles, or I’ll do heroine ka bhai or a henchmen of the villain, and suddenly I had a career, which I had never thought would be possible. So, that’s high I felt because of that. Then I got that high with Raajneeti (2010) and the dialogue, ‘Karara jawaab milega’. Then, Satyamev Jayate (2018), on my entry I saw whistles and cheers. So, I’ve experienced it very few times because I had been part of very few mainstream films,” Bajpayee tells us in an unique dialog the morning after his movies had been proven to a packed theatre.
Asked why does he really feel he hasn’t performed many mainstream movies and the actor begins by stressing that the medium has by no means been a priority for him, and what has mattered up to now is an effective job and selections.
“In cinema, while I was dabbling with different genres, I mainly wanted to push and promote independent cinema and independent directors who I wanted to work with. To do that, I needed that power for myself, and to get that, I have gone ahead and done a few of the mainstream films, got that power, and then used it for my own independent films, and they were many in numbers because I was enjoying my stint in independent films,” the 54-year-old continues, “I was looking for the directors because I realised that it is nearly impossible for any independent director to approach me. And it was very evident that the middle of the road or mainstream people didn’t have solid thing of concrete thing for me. They really didn’t know what to do with Manoj Bajpayee. All they could think of me was a villain. And that I never wanted to do. Those kind of characters never interested, never excited me.”
And because of streaming platforms that Bajpayee witnessed noticed an inflow of roles, various and experimental in nature, which, in a method, gave a brand new route to his profession at this section. Agreeing with this, he admits that OTT has positively empowered him. “Also, it came in a time when the pandemic was at its peak, and people were inside their houses, so they got a chance to explore it deeply. Also, with streaming coming in the picture, suddenly the choices are way too many (for actors). And to my luck, The Family Man happened, which totally changed the demography of OTT. It has empowered me and so many actors like me, and that was a turning point not only for me but also for so many other talents,” says Bajpayee, whose subsequent net sequence, Killer Soup, releases subsequent month.
Talking about his upcoming movie, Joram, which is a theatrical launch, Bajpayee doesn’t draw back from stating that whereas most filmmakers would suppose it’s apt for a digital launch for the topic it has, the studio backing the movie didn’t hesitate and determined launch it in theatres, after which put it on OTT. “It also says that makers now have a lot of confidence in Manoj Bajpayee and their talent. And I feel that confidence comes from OTT and what we have done in these four years. We have used this medium of OTT very well. Not only me, many of the directors and many of the actors to their advantage to really expand their fan base and get the audience to watch the content they want to,” he says, including that his profession going ahead goes to be a high-quality mix of OTT and theatrical releases.
“I’m not going to differentiate between them. I’m going to go with the few films for OTT and few for theatres. The box office never bothered me in the past. It still doesn’t bother me. It will never bother me. It’s always about the content and the quality of the product that I am part of. This is where the buck stops because to really excite me and one particular audience, is something nobody knows how to do it. The numbers will never decide for me as to how good the film is. And that will never change. My love story with the cinema will be on whether it is on OTT or in theatres, it doesn’t matter,” ends the actor, who shall be seen in theatrical movie Bhaiyaaji subsequent 12 months.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
