By Hindustan Times
Manoj Bajpai is understood to tug off probably the most intense roles to perfection. Recall to mind the politician he played in Rajneeti (2010) or long ago in 1998, when he essayed the enduring a part of Bhikhu Mhatre in Satya.
But playing the promiscuous Sardar Khan in Gangs Of Wasseypur (GOW) forced him to step out of his comfort zone.
Tell us about your character in GOW.
My character, Sardar Khan, has two wives. He doesn’t know the way many children he has. He doesn’t have a way of morality, or of right and wrong. He loves sex and ladies. Violence comes easy to him. He's stuffed with filth, but he's still adorable.
How did you prepare for the role?
I needed to unlearn everything I’d done earlier. For the primary 25 days, I MIGHT shoot and return to my room. I USED TO BEn’t interacting with anyone. People thought I was an excessively private person, but I USED TO BE looking to stay in character.
Did playing a philanderer bring you from your comfort zone?
It was an enormous risk. I COULD lose all credibility or, hopefully, people might like my work. Sardar Khan loves his wives, but he can’t help sleeping with other women. He makes the entire wrong choices relating to women and is even beaten up by them. Everyone fears him, but his weakness is sex, so he lets the ladies rule him.
Were you comfortable getting intimate on-screen?
I’m not shy while acting. But I BELIEVE Richa Chadda and Reema Sen (co-stars) were brave. They were telling me the right way to go about it, in a technical way. The sex isn't meant to titillate. They would like him as badly as he wants them. It’s humourous.
Has a fan ever proposed to you? Any pick-up line you remember?
That keeps happening in an actor’s life. It embarrasses you while you encounter it. It isn’t as exciting because it sounds, though. While you get embarrassed, people get the purpose and leave. Someone said you will have a pleasant butt, someone pinched me on-stage!
Was your wife okay with you playing this character?
Shabana is an actor (she has acted in Kareeb and Fiza). She understands the technicalities of intimate scenes. In fact, she and my mother-in-law are dying to look the film. We've got a one-and-a-half-year-old child, Ava, who dances on every occasion the Hunterwali song from GOW plays.
