From Ram Gopal Varma's Satya to Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur to Hansal Mehta's Aligarh and Neeraj Pandey's Special 26, Manoj Bajpayee has always impressed the audiences and critics with his incredible performances. But before becoming an actor, Manoj has had a fair share of struggle and had to convince his parents to let him pursue acting.
Manoj Bajpayee's father wanted him to become a doctor and hence, he pushed him to take the MBBS exam for the same. In an interview on the show Aap Ki Adaalat in 2023, the actor recalled how he marked wrong answers in his exam purposely. "So, for the questions to which I knew the answers, I would hide my face and mark anything. I did that so that I do not give the right answers, else I will have to become a doctor aur actor banne se reh jaunga (my dream of becoming an actor will never be fulfilled)", Manoj said.
Born in Bihar, Manoj wanted to come to Delhi to take admission into National School of Drama (NSD). So, he faked his UPSC preparations so that his parents would allow him to come to the national capital. Speaking at the Agenda Aajtak last year, the actor revealed, "I made up my mind that I will not tell my parents and instead, tell them that I will do Arts from Delhi University and prepare for UPSC and try to become an SP collector. I made them dream of this and they, being so innocent, agreed. I fooled them and came to Delhi."
Manoj Bajpayee did History honours from University of Delhi as admission in NSD would require a graduation degree. But, the actor was rejected thrice from NSD and went into depression. Finaly, he joined acting coach Barry John's workshop and learnt the tricks of the trade from the famous theatre director before coming to Mumbai.
In the Maharashtrian capital, Manoj started living in chawl and appeared in minute roles in films like Bandit Queen, Drohkaal, and Daud until his breakthrough performance in Satya. For playing Bhiku Mhatre in Ram Gopal Varma's film, Manoj even won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.
With his performances in Kaun, Shool, Aks, Veer-Zaara, Raajneeti, and Gangs of Wasseypur, Manoj has established himself as one of the most inspiring actors in the Hindi film industry. His second National Film Award came for the 2004 film Pinjar when he was awarded the Special Jury Award. More than 25 years after making his debut, Bajpayee finally won the National Award for Best Actor for Devashish Makhija's Bhosle, which premiered on SonyLIV on 2020.
In 2019, Manoj began the second innings of his career on OTT with the Amazon Prime Video's The Family Man. Since then, he has been featured in multiple critically-acclaimed web series and shows such as Gulmohar, Killer Soup, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, and Ray. He has become one of the highest-paid actors on OTT and is enjoying his new lease of life on the streaming.
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