'All I Did Was Refuse Scripts': Manoj Bajpayee Recalls How 'Gangs Of Wasseypur', 'Raajneeti' Revived His Career

Manoj Bajpayee, who is regarded as one of Indian cinema’s finest actors, has anchored some of the industry’s most acclaimed titles. However, the path to sustained critical and commercial success was far from linear. In a candid reflection on his journey, the National Award-winning performer opened up about navigating a severe career low during the late 2000s - a phase dominated by creative dissatisfaction and continuous project rejections - before milestone films like Raajneeti (2010), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), and Special 26 (2013) turned the tide.

Manoj Bajpayee Recalls Career Slump

Recalling the period when fulfilling cinematic roles were difficult to come by, Bajpayee revealed that his primary focus had become turning down projects that did not align with his artistic sensibilities.

Opening up on that testing phase, the actor shared, "Before these films, I saw some lows. The kind of work that I wanted to do wasn't coming my way. All I was doing was refusing films and saying no to people. And the ones I said yes to, I wasn't happy doing those films."

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Career's Turning Point

The turning point arrived through organic conversations about cinema with filmmakers who would soon reshape the modern Hindi film narrative. Bajpayee explained that the turnaround kicked off shortly after he watched Neeraj Pandey’s directorial breakthrough, A Wednesday (2008).

Detailing how the meetings aligned over time, Bajpayee recounted, "That's when I watched A Wednesday. Neeraj (Pandey) and I met after that, and we spoke about cinema at large. He told me how he makes his films. That's all I remember from that chat. I also remember meeting Prakash (Jha) ji at around the same time. Anurag (Kashyap) and I were talking simultaneously. Those films started happening to me a year after those meetings."

These conversations directly translated into career-defining portrayals, most notably the fiercely ambitious Veerendra Pratap in Prakash Jha’s political saga Raajneeti; iconic Sardar Khan in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, and CBI Officer Wasim Khan in Neeraj Pandey’s heist thriller Special 26.

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On the professional front, Manoj Bajpayee was recently seen in the single-night Delhi crime thriller Gajab Raat, directed by Ritesh Shah and backed by Neeraj Pandey, which premiered on Netflix.