Manoj Bajpayee On Working With New Directors: I Try To Work With Voices Who Tell Stories In New Ways

Manoj Bajpayee is certainly one of the most respected Indian actors of his generation, and apart from starring in mainstream films, he is known for his work in offbeat cinema. In fact, he has often lent support to up-and-coming directors, to the point that he has not worked with established filmmakers since long. 

During a discussion at the Arth Culture Fest, Bajpayee opened up on working with new directors and said in Hindi, “It’s been years since I stopped working with famous directors. I would try and work with new voices, who were telling stories in new ways. This is how I ended up doing films like Budhia Singh, Gangs of Wasseypur, Missing, Special 26, Gali Guleyan, Rukh, Bhosle, and now Joram and Gulmohar.”

He continued, “The reason I want to work with new directors is that these people are young, they have new ideas. Their expectations from their actors are completely different. As an actor, I always want to keep evolving, and this bothers me. If I keep working with older filmmakers, I won’t evolve. These new directors have grown up on world cinema. They haven’t grown up watching only Hindi films. They watch Malayalam films, they watch Tamil films, they watch Telugu films, they watch European films, American films. This is good for me, because they challenge me, they bother me, they don’t let me sleep. They want me to distance myself from what I’ve done in the past.”

On mainstream streams, the actor has recently featured in several films like ‘Baaghi 2’, ‘Mrs Serial Killer’, and ‘Satyameva Jayate’. He will be seen in the Disney+ Hotstar film ‘Gulmohar’ this Friday.