Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he is the recipient of three National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards, and two Asia Pacific Screen Awards. In 2019, he was awarded India’s fourth-highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, for his contributions in art.
Biography
Manoj Bajpayee also spelt as Manoj Bajpai was born on Wednesday, 23 April 1969 (age 54 years; as of 2023) in Belwa Village in Narkatiaganj, West Champaran, Bihar. His zodiac
sign is Taurus. He started his schooling at a hut school (not named at that time) in his village. He then attended St. Stanislaus Mission Middle School, Bettiah and Khrist Raja
High School, Bettiah, Bihar. He did his class 11 and 12 at Maharani Janaki Kunwar College, Bettiah. While he was studying in school, he participated in various doha and poem competitions. Later, he got admission to Satyawati College, Delhi, but he wanted to study at Ramjas College, so he tried there for a year and on drama quota, he got admission to
Ramjas College.
He also performed in various theatre plays of the Hindu College Dramatics Society. A few theatre plays in which he performed are William Shakespeare’s plays, Comedy of Errors, Ganashatru, and Ginni Pig. After completing his graduation, he applied for the National School of Drama, Delhi, but he got rejected. Later, he came to know about the Sambhav Theatre Group, Delhi, and from there, he did a oneyear acting training course for a fee of Rs 2500. At that time, his father used to send him Rs 200 monthly, and after paying the bills, he was left with only Rs 20. To save his travelling fare, he needed a college bus pass for Rs 12. So, he attended Ramjas College to pursue MA in the Pali language course. However, he left the degree in between. After completing his one-year acting training, he again applied for the NSD, but he was rejected. After getting rejected from the NSD for the second time, he met the Indian actor Raghubir Yadav who suggested Manoj to join Barry John Acting Studio in Delhi where the Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj became
batchmates.
Physical Appearance
| Biodata | Specification |
|---|---|
| Height (approx.) | in centimeters- 175 cm in meters- 1.75 m in feet & inches- 5’ 9” |
| Eye Colour | Black |
| Hair Colour | Black |
Family
Parents & Siblings
His father, Radhakant Bajpayee, was a farmer, who died in
October 2021. His mother, Geeta Bajpayee, died on 8
December 2022.
He is second among his five siblings. His elder sister’s name
is Kamini Shukla. His younger sister, Poonam Dubey, is a
fashion designer. One of his younger sisters’ names is Garima
Bajpayee. His brother, Sujit Kumar Bajpayee Vinay, is a joint
secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change (MoEF&CC).
Wife & Children
In the early 1990s, while Manoj was in Delhi, he had an
arrange marriage with a girl from Bihar. However, in 1995, the
couple got divorced. Later, during the premiere of the Hindi
film ‘Satya’ (1998), Manoj met the Indian actress Neha aka
Shabana Raza for the first time. They were introduced to each
other by one of their friends. In an interview, Manoj shared
that when he reached the party he saw Neha wearing
spectacles and oily hair which was not common with
Bollywood actresses. Manoj said that he liked her simplicity
and courage to attend a Bollywood party with that look. At the
party, they became good friends. Later, they met each other
several times and soon, fell in love with each other. In April
2006, after dating each other for almost eight years, the
couple got married. In 2011, the couple had a daughter
named Ava Rayla.
Religion
Manoj follows Hinduism
Caste
He belongs to a Devout Brahmin family.
Office Address
902 B Wing, Oberoi Sky Heights Co-Op Hsg Socy
Ltd. Lokhandwala Complex, Nr Joggers Park, Andheri (W)
Mumbai
Signature
Career
Theatre Artist
He started his career as a theatre action group member with
the Indian theatre director Barry John for a salary of Rs 1200.
In 1990, Manoj, along with other theatre artists like Gajraj Rao,
N.K. Sharma, and Arvind Babbal, started a theatre group in
Delhi named ‘The Act One’ and performed in various theatre
plays with the group.
Actor
Film
Hindi
In 1994, Manoj made his Bollywood debut with the film
‘Bandit Queen’ in which he played the role of dacoit Maan
Singh.
Hindi film Bandit Queen (1994)
In 1998, he gained immense popularity with his role Bhiku
Mhatre in the Hindi film ‘Satya.’
He then appeared in many popular Hindi films like ‘Shool’ (1999), ‘Aks’ (2002), ‘LOC: Kargil’ (2003), ‘Raajneeti’ (2010), ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ (2012), and ‘Bhonsle’ (2018).
A downfall in his career started in 2004 after the release of the Hindi film ‘Inteqam: The Perfect Game.’ Some of his other Hindi films which failed to do well at the box office are ‘Bewafaa’ (2005), ‘Fareb’ (2005), ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ (2007), ‘Money Hai Toh Honey Hai’ (2008), and ‘Jail’ (2009).
Manoj received great appreciation for his performance in the
Hindi films like ‘Kaun’ (1999), ‘Zubeidaa’ (2001), ‘Special 26’
(2013), and ‘Sonchiriya’ (2019).
Telugu
In 1999, Manoj made his Telugu film debut with ‘Prema Katha’
in which he played the role of Sankaram.
He has acted in a few other Telugu films like ‘Happy’ (2006),
‘Puli’ (2010), and ‘Vedam’ (2010).
Tamil
In 2013, he made his Tamil film debut with the film ‘Samar’ as
Rajesh Arunachalam
He has also acted in the Tamil film ‘Anjaan’ (2014)
Short Film
Manoj Bajpayee has appeared in a few Hindi short films like
‘Jai Hind’ (2015), ‘Taandav’ (2016), ‘Kriti’ (2016), and ‘Ouch’
(2016).
Television
In 1993, Manoj made his TV debut with Doordarshan’s serial
‘Shikast’ in which he played the role of a dumb who was one
of the associates of the goon.
Web Series
Manoj made his web series debut with the Amazon Prime Video series ‘The Family Man’ (2019) in which he played therole of Srikant Tiwari. His performance in the series was appreciated by the critics and the audience. He has also appeared in the second season of the series
In 2021, he appeared in the segment ‘Hungama Hai Kyon
Barpa’ in the Hindi web series ‘Ray,’ which streamed on
Netflix.
Other Work
In 2005, he worked as a host in the Hindi TV quiz show ‘Kam
Ya Zyaada,’ which aired on Zee TV
Manoj lent his voice to the Hindi animated films ‘Ramayana:
The Epic’ (2010; as Rama) and ‘Mahabharat’ (2013; as
Yudhisthira). On 25 March 2014, he started a film production
company Manoj Bajpayee Productions Private Limited,
Mumbai. In 2018, Manoj worked as a producer in the Hindi
films ‘Missing’ and ‘Bhonsle.’ Manoj Bajpayee has worked as
a singer in a few music videos like ‘Bambai Main Ka Ba’
(2020; Bhojpuri) and ‘Kudi Meri’ (2022; Hindi).
He has also worked as a narrator in the Discovery Plus TV
show ‘Secrets of Sinauli’ (2021).
Awards
National Film Awards
1999: Best Supporting Actor for the Hindi film Satya
2004: Special Jury Award for the Hindi film Pinjar
2021: Best Actor for the Hindi film Bhonsle
Filmfare Awards
1999: Best Actor (Critics) for the Hindi film Satya
2000: Best Actor (Critics) for the Hindi film Shool
2017: Best Actor (Critics) for the Hindi film Aligarh
2021: Best Actor in A Short Film for Taandav
Award
Asia Pacific Screen Awards
2016: Best Performance By An Actor for the Hindi film
Aligarh
2019: Best Performance By An Actor for the Hindi film
Bhonsle
Filmfare OTT Awards
2020: Best Actor In A Drama Series (Critics) for the web
series The Family Man 1
2021: Best Actor In A Drama Series (Critics) for the web
series The Family Man 2
Screen Awards
1999: Best Supporting Actor for the Hindi film Satya
2002: Best Actor in a Negative Role for the Hindi film Aks
Zee Cine Awards
1999: Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Male for the
Hindi film Satya
2002: Best Performance in a Negative Role for the Hindi
film Aks
Festival Awards
2016: Best Actor Award by Jagran Film Festival Aligarh
2018: Best Actor Award by New York Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival for Gali Guleiyan
2021: Best Actor in a Web Series by the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne for the web series The Family Man
Other Awards
2013: Best Actor Award by Stardust Awards fro the Hindi
film Gangs of Wasseypur
2016: Bihar Film Ratna Award
2019: Padma Shri for his contribution to the arts
2021: FOI Online Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role
in the Hindi film Bhonsle
Car Collection
BMW 5-Series (Rs 55 lakh)
Mercedes GLE Coupe (Rs 1.27 crore)
Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza (Rs 12 lakh)
Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (Rs 1 crore)
Mercedes-Benz GLS 400d 4MATIC (Rs 1.27 crore)
Toyota Fortuner (Rs 35 lakh)
Mahindra Scorpio (Rs 15 lakh)
Vitara Brezza car
Assets & Properties
He owns an apartment worth Rs 4 crore in Andheri, Mumbai. Net Worth As of 2022, his net worth is around Rs 118 crore.
Income/Fees
As of 2022, he charges around Rs 5-6 crore per film
Favourites
Actor(s): Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah
Actress(es): Smita Patil, Tabu
Film Director(s): Shekhar Kapur, Ram Gopal Varma
Food: Biryani, Penne Pasta
Dessert: Kulfi
Street Food: Vada Paao
Unknown Facts/Trivia about Manoj Bajpayee
Manoj Bajpayee’s parents named him after the veteran Indian actor Manoj Kumar. In his teens, he wanted to change his name. In an interview, while talking about it, he said that Manoj was a common name in Bihar so he wanted to change his name to Samar. While he was in college, he thought of changing his name but when he came to know that for changing name an affidavit and advertisement in the newspaper were required, he quit
the plan. Also, at that time he did not have money for the whole legal process. He then decided that after earning money, he would change his name. Later, on his brother’s
advice, he did not change his name. However, he used the name Samar as his character’s name in the Hindi film ‘Shool’ (1999). In an interview, Manoj shared that in the initial years of
his career, his surname was spelt as Bajpai instead of Bajpayee. Initially, he did not bother much about it. Later, Manoj made sure that in the film credit, his full name was
spelt correctly.
His father wanted him to become a doctor as it was his father’s dream to become a doctor but due to a lack of finances, his father could not become a doctor. After watching the 1973 Hindi film ‘Zanjeer,’ Manoj decided to make his career in acting. In 1992, initially, he was selected to play the role of daku Vikram Mallah in the Hindi film ‘Bandit Queen.’ However, the role was then given to Nirmal Pandey and Manojsettled with a small role of Maan Singh in the film. While he was in college, he was not good at speaking English and Hindi. During his graduation, he used to work on his languages to get fluency in them. In his teens, he got to know about the acting school the National School of Drama, New Delhi through the interviews of the Indian actors Naseeruddin Shah and Raj Babbar. Since then he wanted to join the NSD. He applied for the NSD thrice, but he was rejected. However, in his
fourth attempt at the NSD, he was selected as a teacher at NSD. In an interview, he shared that after getting rejected thrice from the NSD, he once thought of committing suicide. The theatre director Barry John once asked him to quit
applying for the NSD as Manoj was rejected from there thrice. Barry ensured Manoj that he would continue his training in acting. Barry worked on Manoj’s English language. In an interview, Manoj shared that Barry helped him a lot during his struggling days. He further said that Barry was his acting guru
He was once selected to perform in a theatre play in France. At that time, he did not have money to even buy a flight ticket to France. He then borrowed money from his
friends and with that money he booked the ticket. He is trained in semi-classical dance form Chhau. His dialogues from various Hindi films got very popular. Some of his famous dialogues are “Mumbai ka king kaun? … Bhiku Mhatre,” and “Karna hai, toh karna hai”
from the film ‘Satya’ (1988), “Aap the zero, hai zero, aur aap humesha rahenge zero” from the film ‘Aarakshan’
(2011), “Hazrat hazrat hazrat” from ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ (2012), and “Badshah ki gali mein aake uska pata nahi poochte… ghulamo ke jhuke hue sarr khud ba khud raasta
bata dete hai” from the film ‘Shootout At Wadala’ (2013). The Indian actor Pankaj Tripathi considers Manoj his idol. While the two were invited to a talk show together, tearyeyed Pankaj shared that once while Manoj was staying in a hotel, Manoj forgot his slippers in the hotel and Pankaj who was working as the staff there kept his slippers with him out of respect. Manoj was offered a role in the Hindi film ‘Dangal’ (2016), however, he did not like the role and rejected the offer. In the 2016 film, ‘Chalk N Duster,’ Manoj was offered the role of a quiz master in the film. However, the producer of the film Juhi Chawla rejected him as she thought that his
looks were not good enough for the role. The role was then played by the Indian actor Rishi Kapoor. In 2021, Manoj filed a complaint against the Indian film critic Kamaal R Khan for posting a derogatory tweet against him, which reads,
Last night, I was talking with Sunil Pal & hetold me the story of the #FamilyMan web
series. Manoj Bajpayee’s wife is having a boyfriend. Manoj’s minor daughter is also
having a boyfriend. #AaaThoo! Sharam Nahi Aati Iss Nasedi, Ganjedi Bajpayee Ko Aisi prn Parosne main. Laanat hai.” He also compared Manoj to Raj Kundra, who was arrested back then for his alleged involvement in the illegal creation of prn content.”
In 2022, the Indian politician Tejashwi Yadav took to his Twitter account to share the news that Manoj Bajpayee would join Rashtriya Janata Dal. Yadav tweeted, In an interview, Manoj shared his daily morning routine, he said that he started his morning with meditation and
yoga. He then listened to Sufi music, bhajans, and Buddhist chants. In 2022, the Indian author Piyush Pandey authored a book titled ‘Manoj Bajpayee: Kuch Pane Ki Zid,’ which is based
on the life struggles of Manoj Bajpayee. In the book, Piyush shared a story from Manoj’s school life. He wrote that while Manoj was in school, he fell in love with the roll no. 44. Piyush wrote
“Whenever roll number 44 was called in the class, and the voice of the present head echoed
in the class, an inexplicable smile floated on Manoj’s face, which is called ‘blush’ in English.
The ‘distribution’ of the girl of their choice among the boys of the class was done according
to the roll number without the knowledge of the girl. Because of this untold love, friends started calling Manoj Fortyfourwa.”
Pane Ki Zid
- Manoj Bajpayee has a phobia of dogs.
- He has quit consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes.
- He is an ardent devotee of lord Shiva.
- Manoj follows a non-vegetarian diet.
- He has been featured on the cover of various magazines
- like Forbes, Man’s World, and Outlook
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