Manoj Bajpayee relocated to Delhi at the age of seventeen, and applied for the National School of Drama, only to be rejected four times.
67 Facts About Manoj Bajpayee
2.
Manoj Bajpayee continued to do theatre while studying in college.
3.
Manoj Bajpayee made his feature film debut with a one-minute role in Drohkaal and a minor role as a dacoit in Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen.
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Manoj Bajpayee received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for the film.
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Manoj Bajpayee won the Special Jury National Award for Pinjar.
6.
Manoj Bajpayee then played a greedy politician in the political thriller Raajneeti, which was highly appreciated.
7.
In 2012, Manoj Bajpayee played the critically acclaimed lead character Sardar Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur.
8.
Manoj Bajpayee won the National Film Award for Best Actor at the 67th National Film Awards for his performance in the film Bhonsle.
9.
Manoj Bajpayee won Filmfare OTT Award for Best Actor, for The Family Man.
10.
Manoj Bajpayee was born in a pious Hindu Brahmin family on 23 April 1969 in a small village called Belwa near the city Bettiah in West Champaran, Bihar.
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Manoj Bajpayee is the second child among his five other siblings, and was named after actor Manoj Kumar.
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Manoj Bajpayee's father was a farmer and his mother was a housewife.
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Manoj Bajpayee's father had difficulty collecting money for their education.
14.
Manoj Bajpayee studied in a "hut school" till fourth standard, and later did his schooling at Khrist Raja High School, Bettiah.
15.
Manoj Bajpayee completed his 12th class from Maharani Janaki Kunwar College in Bettiah.
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Manoj Bajpayee moved to New Delhi at the age of seventeen and went to Satyawati, then to Ramjas College, Delhi University.
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Manoj Bajpayee had heard about the National School of Drama from actors such as Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, so he applied.
18.
Manoj Bajpayee was rejected three times and wanted to commit suicide afterward.
19.
Manoj Bajpayee then attended director and acting coach Barry John's workshop after actor Raghubir Yadav's suggestion.
20.
Manoj Bajpayee was married to a girl from Delhi, but got divorced during his period of struggle.
21.
Manoj Bajpayee met actress Shabana Raza, who is known as Neha, right after her debut film Kareeb.
22.
Manoj Bajpayee got the role of dacoit Mann Singh in the film.
23.
Manoj Bajpayee was a struggling actor when Mahesh Bhatt offered him the soap opera Swabhimaan, which aired on Doordarshan.
24.
Manoj Bajpayee agreed to do the serial at a low fee.
25.
Manoj Bajpayee then promised Bajpayee a prominent role in his next film.
26.
Kaun, was a whodunit with only three characters in a house, where Manoj Bajpayee played an annoying talkative stranger.
27.
Manoj Bajpayee acted in the Telugu romantic film Prema Katha.
28.
Manoj Bajpayee played Maharaja Vijayendra Singh of Fatehpur, a polo enthusiast prince with two wives.
29.
Manoj Bajpayee's character was inspired by Hanwant Singh, the Maharaja of Jodhpur.
30.
Manoj Bajpayee played the antagonist in the film, a hitchhiker who turns out to be a psychopathic killer, after taking a lift from a couple.
31.
Manoj Bajpayee received another Filmfare nomination for Best Performance in a Negative Role, for the film.
32.
Manoj Bajpayee received the National Film Special Jury Award for his performance in the film.
33.
In 2005, Manoj Bajpayee acted in Dharmesh Darshan's drama Bewafaa, the thriller Fareb, and the English language film Return to Rajapur.
34.
Manoj Bajpayee's shoulder got injured while filming the Telugu film Vedam, and was absent from the screen for nearly two years.
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Manoj Bajpayee then returned in a major role with the comedy Jugaad, which was based on the 2006 Delhi sealing drive incident.
36.
Manoj Bajpayee's next release was the mystery thriller Acid Factory, which was a remake of the 2006 American film Unknown.
37.
Manoj Bajpayee played a comic role of one among the people who are kidnapped and locked in a factory with no memory of how they came there.
38.
Manoj Bajpayee called his role a "narrator" and "mentor" of its protagonist.
39.
In 2010, Manoj Bajpayee starred in Prakash Jha's big-budget ensemble political thriller Raajneeti.
40.
Manoj Bajpayee received a Best Supporting Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film.
41.
Manoj Bajpayee then acted in two Telugu films; Vedam and Puli, followed by the comedy Dus Tola.
42.
In 2012, Manoj Bajpayee appeared in Anurag Kashyap's two-part crime film Gangs of Wasseypur.
43.
In 2013, Manoj Bajpayee had five releases: Samar, his Tamil debut film, was the first release.
44.
Manoj Bajpayee appeared in a supporting role in the film.
45.
Manoj Bajpayee then appeared in Neeraj Pandey's heist thriller Special 26.
46.
Manoj Bajpayee collaborated with Prakash Jha for the fourth time with Satyagraha.
47.
Manoj Bajpayee then provided the voice of Yudhishthira for Mahabharat, a 3D animation film based on the Indian epic of the same name.
48.
In 2014, Manoj Bajpayee played the antagonist in the Tamil action film Anjaan.
49.
Manoj Bajpayee continued to play negative roles with his next film Tevar.
50.
Manoj Bajpayee acted in another short film titled Taandav in 2016.
51.
Manoj Bajpayee watched a few clippings of Siras to prepare for his role.
52.
Manoj Bajpayee won the Best Actor award at the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards and his third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.
53.
Manoj Bajpayee next played a traffic constable in Rajesh Pillai's swan song Traffic.
54.
Later that year, Manoj Bajpayee appeared briefly in the drama film Rukh.
55.
In 2018, Manoj Bajpayee reunited with Neeraj Pandey with the crime thriller Aiyaary, where he played Colonel Abhay Singh who is in pursuit of his protege Major Jai Bakshi.
56.
Manoj Bajpayee later appeared in Ahmed Khan's Baaghi 2, alongside Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani.
57.
Later that year, Manoj Bajpayee acted and made his debut as a producer with the psychological thriller Missing, co-starring Tabu.
58.
Manoj Bajpayee next appeared alongside John Abraham in the vigilante action film Satyameva Jayate.
59.
Manoj Bajpayee won the Best Actor award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.
60.
In Devashish Makhija's Bhonsle, Manoj Bajpayee played a terminally ill retired Mumbai cop who befriends a North Indian girl when the locals are trying to get rid of the migrants in the city.
61.
Manoj Bajpayee played the role of Srikant Tiwari, a middle-class man who secretly works for an intelligence agency.
62.
In 2020, Manoj Bajpayee did a supporting role in Shirish Kunder's crime thriller film Mrs Serial Killer, co-starring Jacqueline Fernandez.
63.
Manoj Bajpayee appeared as a cop trying to solve a murder case in the thriller Silence.
64.
Manoj Bajpayee is a method actor and a director's actor, and is known for his unconventional roles in films.
65.
Manoj Bajpayee has been vocal about the disparity in the pay he commands, in comparison to the top actors in the film industry.
66.
Manoj Bajpayee has cited Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah and Raghubir Yadav as his inspirations.
67.
Manoj Bajpayee never tried to overplay a scene and seemed totally comfortable with a minimalist statement.