Quotes from Manoj Bajpayee

Before moving to Delhi at the age of 17, I had only travelled to Patna or Varanasi outside Belwa.

For me, money has never been an indicator. And it is very sad that each and every film these days is being judged by the money that it makes. It's a world that I don't want to be a part of, and I try and stay away from that.

I don't like anything I see of myself on screen. I might like one scene or a few shots, but mostly I feel bad and keep kicking myself.

What I am used to is 'Gali Guleiyan,' and people talking about my performances, what new I have tried in terms of my craft or the skill of storytelling.

My father is somebody I admire and would like to be. He is a mild man and a gentleman. Even though he was from a conservative background, he was so open to my doing theatre.

John Abraham is a really good guy. We get along very well. It's a nice thing when you have a great tuning with your co-stars, as it makes the working experience all the better. Then you look forward to working with each other every day when you are shooting.

For me, it's always the script. The script which gives me the chance to do something new; that has been my prime objective ever since I started acting. There's nothing else that excites me more than that.

I work for the director, and if audience are happy, I have gotten my award. After that, I have to move on.

Nepotism has always existed in Bollywood.

There has to be some newness in the story or, at least, some aspect of the movie. I get bored if the story is told in the same way all the time. I get bored easily.

Multiplexes are being very unkind to small films. They are giving a lot more space and value to the big budget films rather than distributing show timings fairly. But that fight will go on.

I am not Padma Shri Manoj Bajpayee. I am Manoj Bajpayee, an outsider who saw dreams and stayed on the fringes of Mumbai and worked day and night to get work.

I'm an actor because I love acting, and my romance with this craft called acting is too intense. I'm in this business for a very selfish reason, and that is me, and nobody else. The audience loving it is by chance.

I don't like to work. I am not helpless without work. Work is an obsession for me.

I am a family man. The only difference between me and others is that while they work in corporate offices, I am an actor. I, too, like to go back home after work. I don't mind stopping to pick up groceries.

Earlier films were meant only for entertainment, but now filmmakers, who are products of these times, do not compromise on real stuff. That is why storytelling has become more convincing.

For me, if awards are not increasing my remuneration or adding value to the offers that I get, they have no meaning.

Stars have always been very good at what they do. They are born and blessed with charisma and power over the entire nation. One glimpse of a star makes people go berserk. Such magic cannot be created. You are born with it - or not.

The kind of films and roles I do were never in competition with any star kid. Their aspirations are completely different.

Even the finest actors will have great difficulty showing somebody's loneliness. To put an actor on a chair and ask him to do nothing and yet tell the viewer everything about the character, it's a difficult task.

The second child of a small farmer with six children, I come from a village in Bihar on the border of Nepal called Belwa. I was there till the age of 17 and studied in a Hindi-speaking boarding school run by Catholics in a nearby district town.

Watching an Amitabh Bachchan film in my village was a cinematic treat.

I had to either get better or leave the field. I couldn't go back to my village as a failure. The only thing that occurred to me was that I would work hard and get better next year. I feel that my love for the craft has got me this far, and this love is still there.

After 'Satya,' the industry could not think of me as anything but the villain. They were stereotyping me on the basis of my looks. I lost so much money refusing such roles - the purchase of a new house got delayed by seven years because I said no.