Hansal Mehta reveals why he did not talk to Manoj Bajpayee for 6 years

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta shares how he fought with Manoj Bajpayee, did not talk to him for years, before eventually realising the futility of the bitterness.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has revealed he had a major fight with actor Manoj Bajpayee and they did not speak to each other for six years, before coming together for a Sanjay Gupta film. The fight happened during the shoot of their first film together, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar. Incidentally, a gem like Aligarh would never had been made had the duo not patched up.

Hansal and Manoj have worked together on three films, including Aligarh.

Hansal and Manoj first worked in the 2000 film that also starred Tabu and Saurabh Shukla . Later, they came together for Sanjay’s Dus Kahaniyaan (2007) and eventually, they worked on the critically acclaimed film, Aligarh.

Manoj is currently awaiting the release of Abhishek Sharma’s Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari that also features Fatima Sana Shaikh and Diljit Dosanjh.

Sharing details from his fight, Hansal told Huffpost India, “The reason I haven’t been bitter is that you have to always keep the room open for mending. You never know who you’ll meet and when. I am very philosophical about it. Manoj and I did Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar 20 years ago. He was one of my best friends but we fought during the shoot and had a fallout. For 6 years, we did not talk to each other. We would cross each other and pretend to look the other way, it was that bitter. Then we met at Sanjay Gupta’s place for Dus Kahaniyaan. I had to interact with Manoj professionally. Then after the shoot we went for drinks where Manoj and I happened to be sitting next to each other. We wondered why all those years we never spoke. I was so bitter for those 6 years and I always wondered after that. Nothing, a silly fight!”

“I don’t even remember but it was a misunderstanding. He was in the US, and he called up and started screaming at me over something. I screamed back and I banged the phone down. After that we never spoke. But we wasted a lot of years. Ultimately what happened, we made Aligarh together. If we had stopped talking, how would Aligarh come about? Without Manoj, what even is Aligarh? You can’t close those doors,” he added.

Hansal is currently riding high on the success of his latest web series The Scam 1992: Harshad Mehta Story. Up next, Rajkummar-Nushrratt Bharuccha-starrer Chhalaang is slated for release. The film also stars Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub.

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