Manoj Bajpayee on Taking Personal Transformations to the Screen

Actor Manoj Bajpayee struck a modest pose on the red carpet at the PVR theatre in Juhu, Mumbai, for the 2024 edition of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Behind him stood a gigantic pair of wings, a prop from the sets of The Fable (2024), his film that had its world premiere at Berlinale (The Berlin International Film Festival) earlier this year. Slipping into character, the actor put them on and playfully flapped his wings at the paparazzi, who went wild at the sheer unexpectedness of it all.

Manoj Bajpayee on the red carpet for The Fable.

That’s the thing with Bajpayee — one never quite knows what to expect from the actor. His characters, too — be it Dev from The Fable, Joy Bag from Despatch (2024), or even Srikant Tiwari from The Family Man (2019) — come with an identical sense of intrigue, drawing the audience in while leaving them guessing.

After being one of the founding members of the Act One theatre group in 1990, his debut film Bandit Queen (1994) premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was also India's entry to the Oscars that year. 

Two decades later, a day after the world premiere of Despatch and minutes before the Indian premiere of The Fable, The Hollywood Reporter India caught up with the actor — right after he shed his wings.

With The Family Man and your recent festival hits, how do you see your audience evolving across different platforms?

The audience is changing rapidly, and it all started during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of a sudden, people from all around the world were exposed to different kinds of storytelling. The way they watched a film changed completely. Today, they don't care about the genre or about whether a film is premiered at a festival or not. A good story and good engagement are all that they are looking for; it’s about how we tell the story.

Speaking of good stories, after the world premiere of Despatch, you mentioned that Kanu Behl has changed the way you work…

Definitely. He is a very tedious filmmaker. His demands are very high. After so many years of working in cinema and theatre, the workshop that he made me go through took me back to my initial days of acting. He helped me go back and understand the basics I worked on when I started out. 

Is there something you’ve learnt from him that you intend to carry forward in your subsequent films?

Every character is different, so I keep changing the way I approach one. But yes, a few of the things that I do to prepare (for a film) were revived because of my experience shooting for Despatch.

Despatch follows the life of a tabloid journalist diving into corporate-political scandals. Do you think the film reflects the reality of journalism in India today?

Very accurately. I mean, Joy Bag is looking for money, right? He’s looking for everything that is not considered journalism after a point. I'm not saying anything else to answer your question (smiles).

How does the city of Mumbai lend itself to your performance and the film’s narrative? 

Mumbai is a character in Despatch. A city that doesn't accept a person if they are not productive, so everyone is racing into a dark hole, and nobody is aware of it. 

Moving on to your other film at MAMI this year, Raam Reddy’s The Fable is supposed to chronicle inner turmoil and spiritual awakening. Did it align with your personal journey?

It did. That is where I was (in life) when I got (the script for) The Fable. It immediately resonated with me. I could understand the character better, as well as the inner struggle he had to go through. That's why I said yes to the film. I don't think you can portray such a character if you don't have that crucial sense of seeking inside you.

That sounds difficult — intertwining your personal spirituality with that of your character’s in such a profound manner.

I must tell you — acting is one of the toughest professions in this world. But sadly, in our country, everybody thinks that they can become an actor. And that is our fault, our industry's fault, because it is how we project characters in our films. No character or film is easy to deal with in the first place. It is not only me but also what each and every actor went through while shooting Despatch or The Fable. I think it would require a book to chronicle that kind of inner and outer struggle. It takes a lot of preparation and hard work, but what people look at is the jacket I’m wearing on the red carpet. That's the sad part.

In that case, what did the process of preparing for these characters look like? Are you particularly choosing these kinds of films?

I'll write a book about it one day. I've definitely committed myself to writing one. And I am not choosing the films, they are coming to me. You can only choose if they are there. 

What can you tell us about the personal transformations of Joy and Dev?

One [(Joy) has a lot of intensity, and the other one (Dev) runs away from the intensity of life!

Manoj Bajpayee as Dev in The Fable.

What kind of expectations did you have from Despatch and The Fable? Are they living up to them?

I just want people to love them. There's nothing more I expect. The box office (collections) are none of my business or the audience's; that is the producer's concern. I just have to do it well, and people should watch them and decide whether they like them or not for themselves. It can't be determined by the collections. 

The Fable will premiere in India in the next couple of minutes. What do you think the audience should look forward to?

All the scenes around the wings! But for me, it's always about a shot here and there. I look at them, and I am reminded of the time when I was shooting it; how I got transported into a different zone.