In celebration of director Abhishek Chaubey’s birthday, brilliant actor Manoj Bajpayee, who has worked with Chaubey in Sonechiraiya and Killer Soup, is full of praise for the director both reel and real.
Manoj Bajpayee considers Abhishek Chaubey to be the best director he has worked with: “A very happy birthday to one of my best directors! A rare talent and visionary! Learned so much from him and have been part of some great projects where I have grown so much as an actor!! God bless him always! We’ve done Sonechiraiya, Killer Soup and the short film together. I regard these as among my best work. Abhishek Chaubey is one of the best contemporary directors of this country. I feel Abhishek taps into those aspects of my personality which even I am not aware of. He just lets his actors deep-dive into their characters, not afraid of what they would come up with. The only other director who gives his actors so much space to innovate is Shekhar Kapoor. While doing Killer Soup, we knew we were doing something that had never been attempted before. In the short film, ‘Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa’, I just prepared in collaboration with my director. It was all there in the script. All I had to do was read the script as many times as possible.”
When asked to comment on Chaubey’s personality traits, Manoj says, “He is very mild-mannered. But he knows exactly what he wants. In ‘Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa’ Abhishek made me and Gajaraj Rao rehearse rigorously. We kept on exploring different facts of my character as someone drunk on his success. Then, he meets a character who throws him off completely. I wanted to project the songs not as Manoj Bajpayee but my character Musafir Ali. The way he plays the harmonium and connects with the live audience …. and the way he moves his lips… All that was worked out in advance. There was a gentleman who came on the sets to show me how to play the harmonium. So yeah, a lot of effort has gone into that one-hour film. We normally don’t see the same effort going into Hindi films.”
Adding, “What I liked about Abhishek Chaubey is that he’s so innovative. His imaginative power is superlative. Who else would have thought of adapting Mr Ray’s milieu into this world of magic realism? There is an element of theatre also in the presentation. Abhishek’s experience in theatre came in very handy. When we were rehearsing and performing in front of the camera, we made sure the mood that we had decided on(theatrical yet cinematic) was on display.”
Manoj can’t stop raving about Abhishek Chaubey. “I am a great fan of Abhishek Chaubey. His imaginative power is something else. Working with Abhishek Chaubey was a dream. Sonechiraiya is an all-time classic and one of my best performances. Who could think he could make my cameo role so memorable? I hope to work with him as much as possible. I am very greedy when it comes to working with a director like Abhishek. When he casts other actors in my place, I feel very possessive of him. I vibe really well with him.”
