Coming from a small village of Bihar, Manoj Bajpayee struggled his way to success in Bollywood but the actor says people in India are more interested in achievements rather than the journey.
Manoj Bajpayee
Coming from a small village of Bihar, Manoj Bajpayee struggled his way to success in Bollywood but the actor says people in India are more interested in achievements rather than the journey.
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Manoj Bajpayee
The 47-year-old actor, who will be seen essaying the role of marathon star Budhia Singh's coach in "Budhia Singh - Born To Run," says be it an actor or an athlete, India lacks the system to discover a talent and nurture it.
"We in our country lack the system to find talent and promote or train them. The problem is we don't consider the talent when he/she is in process.
"We like to see achievers but we don't like to see the struggle. We don't want to know about the preparation. This ignorance has to go away," Manoj told PTI in an interview.
"Budhia Singh- Born To Run" is based on the life a child from Odisha, who was listed as the world's youngest marathon runner in the Limca book of records.
Manoj says when they were making the biopic, they were keen to promote Budhia as well.
"As an actor or a filmmaker this is the best we can do to get support for the film as well as Budhia, who is left alone without a coach, without a mentor, without any direction. He is dying to train today," he says.
Manoj's "Aligarh" had faced trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and in "Budhia" too he faced some problems with the board.
The actor believes filmmakers should unite to fight arbitrary suggestions by the censor board.
"The battle with CBFC is not new, it has always been there. With every chairperson the way changes. At the end of the day, we have to look at the board and the significance of it.
"CBFC cannot have the job of scissoring, banning or not allowing certification. My film 'Saat Uchakke' is stuck since the longest time. It's with the tribunal now. We made a film one and a half year ago and it is still stuck. Whatever the tribunal will say, we will abide by it," Manoj said.
Manoj says he has faith in the Shyam Benegal committee and hopes the government will implement his recommendations soon.
"I feel the whole system of CBFC is not right in the democracy. But classifying films is something that should be done. Shyam Benegal recommendations I feel would do lots of good. The kind of recommendations which came out are very good and Benegal himself is a modern thinking man.
"He is not going to make any kind of mistake. We have faith in him and in government that they will implement those recommendations as soon as possible to end the conflict between the filmmakers and CBFC," he said.
Apart from the government, Manoj also expects the film fraternity to come together for each and every film like they did for "Udta Punjab".
"Industry needs to come together for every wrong that happens to every film. I was against how 'Udta Punjab' was treated and I am equally hassled with how 'Saat Uchakke' is stuck. We as fraternity should come together every time."
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