Manoj Bajpayee Says He Should've Had More Scenes In SRK-Preity Zinta's Veer Zaara: 'More Focus Is Given To...'

Manoj Bajpayee made a small appearance in Yash Chopra’s superhit, classic film Veer Zaara. He played Preity Zinta’s fiance in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer and had a minor role. However, Manoj feels that to truly understand the greyness of his character, he should have been in more scenes in the film.

Manoj told Radio Nasha, “Yash Chopra told me, ‘This is the role I have for you. I mostly make romantic films, but when I had to cast for this role, I could only think of you.’ Yash ji had watched me in Pinjar and that’s why he cast me for that role.”

“I know that it was a love story and more focus is given to the hero and heroine of the film, but to make my character look greyer, I think there should have been a few more scenes,” he said.

Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee have an old connection. The two were part of Barry John’s theatre group in Delhi. At the time, both Manoj and Shah Rukh were trying to establish themselves as actors and were struggling with their finances. In a previous interview, Manoj recalled how he and Shah Rukh would share cigarettes during their theatre days.

Speaking to Galatta India, Manoj said, “When you are in a theatre group, and someone is smoking, they would never smoke alone. No one would smoke one cigarette all by themselves because no one could afford it. So if anyone had one cigarette, they had to share it with four people.”

He added, “Even if he had the money to buy a pack of cigarette, or buy one cigarette, he could not afford to have it alone because others have shared it with him in the past and now it is his turn to share it.” Manoj said that while he stayed in Barry John’s theatre group for a few years, Shah Rukh was a part of it for a few months before moving to Mumbai and starting his Bollywood career. Manoj shared that he moved to Mumbai only after he worked in Shekhar’s Kapur’s ‘Bandit Queen’.

Earlier in an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Manoj had said that SRK was the one who took him to a discotheque for the first time. “He (SRK) was the only one who used to come in Maruti Van. In those days a Maruti Van, red colour, I still remember. He is the one who has taken me to a discotheque for the first time in Taj in Delhi. I mean we were very young, we had kind of just gotten out of our adolescent age and we met. He was part of Barry John’s group for some time,” the actor said.