Mumbai: Carving a niche for himself in Bollywood was not a cakewalk for ‘The Family Man’ actor Manoj Bajpayee, who had no godfather in the industry.
During a candid conversation with entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal for Mint, Bajpayee shared the story behind his journey from hell to heaven.
Recollecting his struggling days, Bajpayee revealed that he lived in ‘hell’ when he was mastering his acting skills and teaching at the National School of Drama in New Delhi.
“I still shudder when I think of my days in a barsati. I used to live in Mukherjee Nagar. The only advantage of a barsati is that they are cheap. But it used to get extremely hot in the summers and extremely cold in the winters. If the temperature outside was 40 degrees, it would feel like 45 degrees inside. It was hell,” recalled the accomplished actor.
After polishing his acting skills despite adversities in Delhi, the actor moved to Mumbai to try his luck in the industry. But, life in Mumbai was also not easy.
While in Delhi the actor didn’t have a proper shelter, in Mumbai he starved as he had no work and money.
“When I was in Delhi, I used to stay busy. Theatre didn’t pay me, but it kept me busy. I worked for 18 hours. And I never slept hungry, thanks to my friends. Even if I missed lunch, my friends would share half their chapati with me. But Mumbai was very difficult for me,” he said.
“I wasn’t good physically. I was also down mentally and emotionally. There was not a lot to do there. I was only wandering from studio to studio in search of work. I was completely broke. It is quiet an expensive place to live. There was no guarantee of where you will find your next meal. I would starve the whole day. Production people would chase us out when we would approach them for work,” revealed the actor.
However, the actor gradually learnt how to ward off hunger pangs.
“Eventually, I learnt tricks to arrange for food. I used to go to a set exactly when they would have lunch break. I used to find a familiar face first and then our conversation would lead to, ‘I am going to grab a bite, you want to join?’ And I would be like, ‘Sure’. We used to put a lot of thought in arranging food,” shared the actor.