Manoj Bajpayee weighs in on ‘masculinity’ debate initiated by Animal: ‘It is not about alpha male, if your film is engaging…’

Manoj Bajpayee continued to explain why he was able to portray his character of a ‘voiceless’ man in Joram ably. “I have seen this in my own family. My father didn’t have a voice. We are six children, and if you ask any of my siblings, they will say the same thing. My mother was the alpha female. Even in her last days, she was so independent. She hated to be dependent on anyone. She was asking my sister to give her poison so that she could die because she hated the fact that she was dependent on her children. So, I am from that family. I am brought up with that conditioning.” Manoj’s mother Geeta Devi passed away in 2022 due to age-related issues.

When he is offered a character or a film that doesn’t match up to his conditioning, Bajpayee doesn’t take it up, “not because it is a moral or social issue, but because I have not experienced it. It doesn’t suit my gaze.” Explaining his perspective with an example, the actor shared an anecdote from the sets of his next film, Bhaiyaa Ji, which he is producing as well.

“Just now we were shooting the film Bhaiyaa Ji and it is our take on commercial films and mainstream films, and women characters were half-baked. We really sat down and we thrashed it out. ‘Aise nahi ho sakta (We cannot do it like this).’ Even if it is mainstream cinema, we have to sit down and we have to thrash it out. We postponed those sequences to make them (women) equal stakeholders in the script. Then only we can move ahead,” the actor said.

But Manoj Bajpayee also understands the business aspect of his profession. He knows that irrespective of the subject, a movie works with the audience only if it is “engaging”. He concluded, “The film that is instigating this topic is the biggest blockbuster. That means, at the end of the day, it is not about alpha male or anything else. If your film is not engaging, everything falls flat. Even if you are trying to say something amazing about the society, about the world, but the film is not engaging, the whole message falls flat.”

Animal, a revenge-saga, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, Triptii Dimri and Anil Kapoor, among others, is among the biggest hits of 2023. The film has earned over 862 crore worldwide.