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Yash Chopra was adamant about casting Manoj Bajpayee in Veer Zaara because he wasn’t sure if he’d get another chance: ‘I don’t make films for actors like you..’

Actor Manoj Bajpayee recalls working with filmmaker Yash Chopra on Veer Zaara.

manoj bajpayeeManoj Bajpayee starred in Yash Chopra's 2004 romantic drama Veer-Zaara in a special appearance.

Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who will next be seen in the film Bhaiyya Ji, has opened up about the time when he had to sign films simply because he was running out of money. Manoj recalled the year 2002, when most of his movies tanked at the box-office. Ironically, the actor received National Awards for few of the films which failed. One such movie was Pinjar and Manoj said that apart from receiving the National Award for it, he also got the chance of working with Yash Chopra because of that film.

In an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Manoj said, “I got a National award for Pinjar. But it did not work at the box-office. But you know what Pinjar gave me? It gave me Veer Zaara. Yash ji saw the film and he was mesmerised and he was adamant on getting me to do that role in Veer Zaara.”

The actor continued, “Nahi toh Yash ji ke saath hum jaise actors ki koi jagah he nahi thi. Yash ji kehte bhi the ki ‘beta, yeh ab hojaega kyunki pata nahi kab kaam karenge tere saath main tere jaise actors ke liye film nahi banata (Yash ji used to say, ‘Son, this will happen now because I don’t know when I’ll work with you. I don’t make films for actors like you).” Manoj featured in the Yash Chopra directorial in a cameo.

Manoj Bajpayee also reflected on the tough times and said, “It was a bad time. The down that I have seen, I hope nobody gets to see. When you have to do a film just because ‘ab paisa khatam ho raha hai, ghar kaise chalega.’ Outside people didn’t know, there is nothing there in that big home.”

Pinjar also starred Urmila Matondkar and Sanjay Suri.

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  • Manoj Bajpayee Shah Rukh Khan Yash Chopra
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