‘I may return to TV’

Actor Manoj Bajpai, who was last seen in Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti and started his career with the TV Swabhimaan, considers anchoring shows, but shows zero interest in reality content.

While most actors would gloat in the glory of being responsible for the success of a cult film like Satya (1998), Manoj Bajpai doesn’t. Neither does he think too much about the scripts he picks, nor does he eliminate any options of broadening his presence in the media.



The actor, who was last seen in Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti, started his career with the TV Swabhimaan. When asked whether he, too, would follow the trend of Bollywood actors going to TV, he says, "I don’t think I can do reality shows because they require more commitment in terms of time, which I may not be able to promise due to my film projects. But, I don’t mind anchoring shows. I would enjoy it because I have done it in the past."



Not so serious

Bajpai claims that he does not make a conscious effort to play intense roles but his future line up doesn’t support his statement.



"It slips out of people’s minds that I have worked on successful projects like Zubieda (2001) where I wasn’t in a serious role. It’s not about the genre I choose," he explains. The actor has accepted Prakash Jha’s Arakshan and an untitled film by Anurag Kashyap based on the mafia in Dhanbad. "I can’t divulge details on Anurag’s film right now, but it will be shot in two parts and is in an interesting space," he says.

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Bajpai has been chosen as the celebrity on the month on UTV World Movies’ property, 50 Movies To See Before You Die this month. The films he has chosen include Blessed With Fire (2005), Swindled (2004), Viva Cuba (2005), The Mission (1986) and The Longest Penalty Shot In The World (2005).

Bajpai accepts that he hasn’t seen all the films but he has heard about most of them: “I watch a lot of world cinema. Hollywood doesn’t influence young directors like Dibakar Banerji and Anurag (Kashyap) as much as World Cinema does, right?”