Manoj Bajpayee is one of the finest actors of our Hindi film industry. Although his acting talent is par excellence, he is not known for having exceptional dancing skills. In fact, the only dance that one can relate to him is his bindaas style in Satya’s song Sapne Mein Milti Hai. The breakout film was Manoj’s debut film and got him a lot of recognition. Now, Manoj has revealed that he is a trained dancer, but quit the dream of dancing in his films when he watched Hrithik Roshan burn the dance floor in Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai that released in 2000.
Recalling his theatre days, Manoj said that is a prerequisite for an artist to sing and dance and recollected that he used to dance back then in his plays. He said during a chat show, “Since I'm from theatre, there used to be a prerequisite that an artist should know how to sing. Even if you do not become a frontline singer, you must be a chorus singer at least. Haan, main naachta bhi tha (Yes, I used to dance as well). Main Chhau dance mein trained hoon lekin jab Hrithik aya na. Maine Hrithik ko dekha toh maine kaha aaj ke baad dancing ka khwaab band kyuki ab ye nahi seekh sakta main (I'm trained in Chhau dance but when Hrithik came in the industry and I saw his performance, I told myself 'this is the end of my dream of dance as I can't learn this)."
Manoj Bajpayee and Shefali Shah in Satya's Sapno Mein Milti Hai
When prodded during the interview and asked about his dance performance in the Satya song Sapne Mein Milti Hai, Manoj said that he had already done whatever dance he had to do before Hrithik made his Bollywood debut.
Manoj will be seen in Gulmohar along with Sharmila Tagore, Simran Bagga, Amol Palekar, Kaveri Seth and Suraj Sharma. Produced by Star Studios in association with Chalkboard Entertainment and Autonomous Works, Gulmohar will get a digital release on Disney+ Hotstar and is directed by Rahul V. Chittella.
(Source: The Curly Tales)
