Manoj Bajpayee says he ‘got drunk, shared room’ with dacoit Man Singh during Bandit Queen: ‘He doesn’t have a happy life’

Manoj Bajpayee played the role of dacoit Man Singh in the film Bandit Queen. The actor has now revealed how he once got drunk with the dacoit.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | July 1, 2023 06:05 PM IST

3 min read

Manoj Bajpayee's first film was Bandit Queen. (Photo: Manoj/Instagram)

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Shekhar Kapur’s 1994 film Bandit Queen, starring Seema Biswas in the lead role, marked the acting debut of Manoj Bajpayee, who played the role of dacoit Man Singh. In a recent interview, Bajpayee shared an interesting anecdote from those days and said that the real-life dacoit Man Singh once showed up on the film’s set and had a drink with him.

In an interview with Film Companion, Manoj revealed how Man Singh came to the sets and asked to meet the actor playing his role. Manoj said, “We got drunk together and we even shared a room.” When asked if he got scared, Manoj said no and added, “Because he himself was very scared all the time and he was always mapping the place and the location and suddenly he used to disappear in the crowd and it was difficult to find him. He used to appear from somewhere after the pack up and sit in the car. The whole time he was looking at the road. Then I realised he doesn’t have a happy life, a peaceful life.”

Manoj said that he just kept looking at Man and asked him one question, which ultimately contributed to his performance. He asked, “How were you with Phoolan?” And to this, Man replied, “Phoolan ko humne kabbhi aurat ke tarah nahi dekha. Humne usko humesha aage rakha. (I never saw her as a woman, I always kept her ahead.)” Manoj said that he kept this in his mind while playing Man.

Shekhar had earlier shared the incident on Instagram and said that he missed this kind of excitement on the sets. He wrote, “One night the real Maan Sing slipped into our sets at night and and wanted to meet the man playing him. Apparently the real Maan Singh and Manoj got drunk together and what actually passed between them .. only Manoj can tell you .. But what an adventure, what an experience for an actor, playing a real live, Dacoit being hunted by the police .. being confronted by the Dacoit himself !! The adventures of film making .. when making movies was a true life adventure .. I miss those days .. I miss the excitement of uncertainty.”

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