Manoj Bajpayee recalls he was drunk when he met first met his idol Amitabh Bachchan: ‘He hugged me’
Manoj Bajpayee shot to fame after he appeared in Ram Gopal Varma’s 1998 film Satya and within days of the film’s release, Manoj had become one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. In a recent chat with The Lallantop, Manoj recalled meeting his idol Amitabh Bachchan soon after a film screening in those early days and shared that he was quite intoxicated at the time.
Manoj recalled that he had been drinking with director Ram Gopal Varma and critic Khalid Mohamed in the car outside and was quite nervous since Amitabh Bachchan was watching his film with his family. Manoj said that he had never seen Big B in real life until that point. “Mere haath kaanp rahe the ki andar Amitabh Bachchan film dekh rahe hain apne parivaar ke sath. (I was shivering because Amitabh Bachchan was watching my film with his family.)”
As the film’s show was about to end, RGV left the car because he had to receive the guests. “Unhone pucha tum aaoge, maine bola nahi sir, main bohot nervous hun, main nahi face kar paunga. (He asked if I wanted to come along, I said no because I was too nervous to face them).” Manoj then laughingly recalled that Kahlid tricked him into getting out of the car and then locked the door so he couldn’t go back inside the car. “Usne kaha jao, Amit ji se milo jaa kar ke. Tumko yahan baithne ka koi matlab hi nahi hai. He is your hero (He said go and meet Amit ji. There is no point in you sitting here).”
Manoj was confused about where to go but did not have the courage to face his idol so he ran towards the washroom so he could stay inside as Bachchans left the screening. As he was about to enter, he heard a voice that called out his name and found it was Abhishek who was congratulating him for his performance. “Usne bohot tareef karni shuru ki aur baat karta raha. Tab tak peeche se ek aadmi prakat hota hai. Yeh cinemtaic hai pura. Ek lamba sa kad vala aadmi peeche se aaya aur voh meri taraf dekh rahe hain aur yeh hain Shri Amitabh Bachchan aur inko parde pe dekhne ke baad pehli baar dekh raha tha main. Aur voh bhi nashe mein hun main (Abhishek started praising me. I could see a tall man appearing from afar. It was quite cinematic. A tall man came from behind and he was looking at me, and this was Amitabh Bachchan, and I was seeing him for the first time in real life. And I was drunk).”
Manoj recalled that as soon as he saw Big B, he felt like his ears were ringing. He shared, “Jaise hi unko dekha, literally laga ki kaan se seeti ki awaaz nikli. Seeti sunayi de rahi hai mujhe. Voh kuch bol rahe hain, jo mujhe unki aawaz mujhe sunayi de rahi hai lekin kya bol rahe hain mujhe samajh nahi aa raha. Kyunki seeti ki aawaz loud hoti ja rahi hai aur thoda bohot nasha bhi hai (The moment I saw him, it felt like my ears were ringing. I could only hear that ring. He was saying something, I could hear his voice but I could not reger anything because the ringing kept getting louder and I was a bit drunk as well).”
Manoj said that Amitabh was holding his hand as he spoke to him and he kept looking at his face with awe. He then gathered the courage to speak and asked if he could hug him. “Ant mein main yeh bolta hun kisi tarah se sahas karke kya main aapko gale laga sakta hun? Ek second ke liye voh ruke fir kehte hain ‘arre bhai kyu nahi? Unhone mujhe gale lagaya. Main voh pal bhul nahi sakta apne jeevan mein (In the end, I gathered the courage and asked him if I could hug him? He looked at me for a moment and said ‘yes, why not?’ And he hugged me. I can’t forget that moment for the rest of my life).”
Amitabh and Manoj later worked together in films like Aks, Satyagraha, Aarakshan among a few others.
