“I WAS ON THE VERGE OF SUICIDE..” - SURIYA’S VILLAIN LATEST EMOTIONAL STATEMENT!

However, the journey has not been the smoothest for him. In a recent interaction with Humans of Bombay, Manoj opened up about the sour times he had during the early days of his acting career.

Speaking about how acting became his passion, Manoj said “I’m a farmer’s son. I grew up in a village in Bihar with 5 siblings. We went to a hut school. We led a simple life, but whenever we went to the city, we’d go to the theater. I was a Bachchan fan & wanted to be like him. At 9, I knew acting was my destiny.”

Manoj later applied to the National School of Drama and ultimately got rejected thrice. “I was close to committing suicide, so my friends would sleep next to me and not leave me alone. They kept me going until I was accepted. That year, I was at a chai shop when Tigmanshu came looking for me on his khatara scooter. Shekhar Kapur wanted to cast me in Bandit Queen! So I felt I was ready & moved to Mumbai,” said Manoj.

Adding on about his initial days of struggle, Manoj said “Once, an AD tore my photo & I’ve lost 3 projects in a day. I was even told to ‘get out’ after my 1st shot. I didn’t fit the ideal ‘hero’ face–so they thought I’d never make it to the big screen. All the while, I struggled to make rent & at times even a vada pav was costly. But the hunger in my stomach couldn’t dissuade my hunger to succeed.”

Lastly, Manoj Bajpayee revealed how all his hard work paid off. “That’s when the awards rolled in. I bought my first house & knew…I was here to stay. 67 films later, here I am. That’s the thing about dreams–when it comes to turning them into reality, the hardships don’t matter. What matters is the belief of that 9-year-old Bihari boy & nothing else,” he signed off.