Not comfortable with intimate scenes: Manoj Bajpayee

Two-time National Award winner Manoj Bajpayee found it difficult to physically abuse a woman in upcoming movie, Lanka. Apparently, for one intimate scene with Tia Bajpai in debutant director Maqbool Khan’s Lanka, Manoj had cold feet and needed 20 retakes.

For National Award-winning actor Manoj Bajpayee, enacting elaborate sequences with intense dialogues is a daily routine. But some scenes make him squirm. Manoj reveals, “I am against physical intimacy on screen. I don’t feel comfortable doing such sequences. I am shy that way.”

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Apparently, for one intimate scene with Tia Bajpai in debutant director Maqbool Khan’s Lanka, Manoj had cold feet and needed 20 retakes. He says, “It’s a small scene but it was big thing for me. I am not used to enacting such scenes. So the director and others were making fun of me when I fumbled and was visibly nervous. Though I wanted to finish it off sooner and move on to other scenes, it took forever.”

Incidentally, Manoj’s character is derived from Raavan and is socially and politically very powerful. When he becomes obsessed with a girl, his downfall begins. Manoj’s one-sided love makes him force her into a relationship with him without her consent. Didn’t he express his inability to do such scenes at the scripting stage? He says, “I decided to go ahead of my fears and portray this dark character. Maqbool convinced me that it wouldn’t look vulgar or out of place.”