Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpayee is celebrating his 55th birthday. The actor has portrayed a variety of roles in his career and has won the hearts of fans. He began his career with supporting roles, but gradually started receiving better lead roles. However, when he started getting better lead roles, his priorities were set. In one instance, he turned down a film featuring Shah Rukh Khan. Let’s delve into the matter.
22 years ago, Manoj Bajpayee rejected a film featuring Shah Rukh Khan, which set the box office on fire.
Manoj Bajpayee began his career with the film “Bandit Queen”
After this film, he also appeared in “Satya” in a supporting role as Bhiku Mhatre. This film earned him considerable recognition. Then came the film “Shool”. In this film, Manoj Bajpayee showcased through his role as police officer Samar Pratap that he has his own unique style. His role as a police officer in the film was highly appreciated. Although this was the time when he wasn’t getting lead roles in commercial cinema, he was doing lead roles in low-budget or parallel cinema. Films like “Pinjar”, “Zubeidaa”, and “Kaun” are some examples.
In the midst of this, Sanjay Leela Bhansali approached him for the film “Devdas” starring Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role.
He was approached for the role of Chunnilal. Saif Ali Khan had already declined to play this role. Manoj also followed suit. He refused to do supporting roles at this point. Following this trend, he declined to work in the film. Later, this role was played by Jackie Shroff. The film was a huge success. It was released in 2002 and turned out to be the highest-grossing film of that year. The film had a budget of 50 crores and earned more than 100 crores.
Manoj Bajpayee Wanted to Play Devdas
However, Manoj Bajpayee has said that he likes the character of Devdas and he himself wants to play such a role. Many films have been made on Devdas, but he regrets that he has not yet had the opportunity to play such a role. It should be noted that Manoj Bajpayee’s film “Silence 2” has recently been released on an OTT platform. After this, he has projects like “Bhaukaal”, “The Fable”, and “Dispatch” in hand.