Manoj Bajpayee Visits BJAS

And Receives the Padma Shri

Manoj Bajpayee made another visit to graduating members of the BJAS Mumbai Diploma in Film Acting course in late December, 2018. As always, the students appreciated his sincere engagement with students and his honest tales of life as a struggling and then successful actor. Videos of his interaction with students are linked below.

Manoj was conferred with the ‘Padma Shri’ on the 70th Republic Day, 26 January 2019. From Bikhu Mahatre in Satya (1998), to Sardar Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), from a homosexual professor in Aligarh (2015), to a scheming politician in Rajneeti (2010), actor Manoj Bajpayee has enthralled his fans with a variety of roles in his 25-year-long career in films.

But as he explains, it wasn’t always so easy. Manoj arrived in Delhi from Bihar in the mid-eighties with the passionate desire to become an actor. However, he was rejected from the National School of Drama for 4 consecutive years. Then he met acting coach and famed theatre director Barry John and joined his Theatre Action Group. Impressed by Bajpayee’s acting, John hired him to assist him in his teaching.

Manoj Bajpayee earned his acting credentials doing theatre and is known for his acting sensibilities. He made his feature film debut with a one-minute role in Drokaal (1994), which was followed by a brief but celebrated role in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen (1994). After a few unnoticed roles, Manoj played the gangster Bhiku Mahatre in Ram Gopal Varma’s 1998 crime drama Satya, which proved to be his breakthrough role. He received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for the film. He is next seen in Son Chiriya which has an ensemble cast comprising Sushant Singh Rajput, Ranveer Shorey, Ashutosh Rana, and Bhumi Pednekar, among others.