Manoj Bajpayee reveals he felt guilty going to 5-star hotels after Satya’s success; says Akshaye Khanna knocked some sense into him

Manoj Bajpayee’s journey in Bollywood has been anything but smooth. An outsider who broke into show business through Delhi’s theatre circuit, Manoj had to wait four years and take on several minor roles before securing his much-needed breakthrough. However, when it came — with Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya — it not only defined his career but also changed the trajectory of Bollywood, eventually becoming one of the most influential Indian films of all time. Since then, Manoj has appeared in a plethora of films, both independent and mainstream, across various languages, firmly establishing his reputation and even winning the National Film Award for Best Actor.

While the commercial and critical success of Satya brought him nationwide fame, besides earning him the National Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Manoj initially struggled to adjust to the sudden attention and success. He recently confessed that, for a while after Satya, he even felt out of place in five-star hotels, grappling with a sense of impostor syndrome. “It was Akshaye Khanna who said, ‘Manoj, why are you feeling so guilty about your success? Own it.’ Whenever I sat in my car, I felt like I was sitting in someone else’s car,” he shared during a chat with Midday.

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“You have not seen all of this for such a long period that you’re not used to it. People ask me, ‘Are you comfortable with the attention that you are getting?’ No, how can I be? I am very nice and polite to them, to expect me to be comfortable? No, for 25 years I hadn’t gotten that attention. (By the time I became a star) all others had been stars for 30 years or so. They wouldn’t know anything else,” he added.

In 2024, Manoj appeared in five projects, including a streaming series, most of which were released directly on OTT platforms. Among these was The Fable, which premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival and is awaiting public release. He also starred in the Netflix black comedy crime thriller series Killer Soup, alongside Konkona Sen Sharma. His other movies were Silence 2: The Night Owl Bar Shootout, Bhaiyya Ji and Despatch.