Actor Manoj Bajpayee has stepped aside from art cinema for a few years and propelled himself completely into commercial cinema. Next week, he will be seen in director Milap Zaveri’s masala entertainer Satyameva Jayate which revolves around the injustice in system and corruption. Manoj will be seen sharing the screen with John Abraham in the film.
While he has established himself well in the industry, in a career spanning two decades, he still remains popular for parallel films like Satya, Shool, Tandav, Gangs of Wasseypur, Aligarh – which have been memorable and controversial. While Aligarh stayed away from “objectionable scenes” it was given an ‘A-Certificate’.
In an exclusive chit-chat with PeepingMoon.com, Manoj spoke at length about censorship, controversies and his films. “Censorship waha (Aligarh) kainchi chala nahi payi. Lekin concept ko unlogo ne A certificate de diya. We were sure," quipped the actor, expressing concern over the state of censorship in the artistic medium.
“It’s a setback to work in this censor board, in this kind of a ruling. It’s a frustration. The censor here has nothing positive to offer to the creative people. Iranians have given great creative work. That’s the (right) kind of censorship. But the one thing censors could not change over the years is the history… they could kill the creative people but not the art. That’s the beauty of it,” he further added.
“Creative people should not stop themselves”
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Manoj has previously addressed cinema as a medium of expression. But he insisted that one should not hope films to shoulder moral responsibilities. “Films or any creative medium have a responsibility to be true to art, true to its storytelling. But they don’t have a moral responsibility. And this is where we are being targeted in the name of morality. When women are raped and burnt you ask us not to show it. Nobody wants to make it right but expect us not to express by incorporating it in creative work. That’s a contradiction we are living in, for so many years.”
"They (censor) could kill the creative people but not the art”
Commenting on the many controversies that the celebrities face today, he expressed that it's easy to target a film, a director or an actor. "Actors are the most powerless powerful people. People admire us, love us, that’s our power. In reality, we are powerless.”
With many mainstream Bollywood stars stepping into the digital space, Manoj, too, will join the clan. He will be seen in Amazon Prime’s original series The Family Man. The filming ends in October and will be available for stream starting April or November next year. Talking about the digital space and its success he asserted, “Right now there’s no censorship thankfully. Though, people are already murmuring (about the digital censorship). Fingers crossed."
