We keep trying to find a mantra for everything: Manoj Bajpayee

In his latest film, ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’, Manoj Bajpayee plays a lawyer who takes on a sensitive legal battle in court to protect the rights of a young woman. During the promotions for the project, the actor was asked about the current state of the industry and he said that the films weren’t connecting anymore as people in the industry looked for an easy mantra to success. He believed that if the story and script were given adequate time to develop, then everything else would fall into place.

This is his latest project on OTT after the films ‘Silence: Can You Hear It?’, ‘Dial 100’ and ‘Gulmohar’. In the last few years, he has also headlined the ‘Prime Video’ series ‘The Family Man’ and been a part of the ‘Netflix’ anthology ‘Ray’. The actor is known for choosing projects that he personally believes in and most of them are critically acclaimed.

In a recent interview, Manoj was asked about how films were not doing well, even on OTT: “We keep wondering, ‘Why aren’t films working?’ But the reason is right within you. We keep trying to find a mantra for everything. We keep looking for the thing that will make us successful. It doesn’t work like that. Just be true to the job. It’s most important that we pay attention to the story. We must spend time on writing a good script. There were 18 drafts of ‘Bandaa’. It takes time. For ‘Gulmohar’, it took them three years.”