Manoj Bajpayee on lack of recognition: Even National Awards jury has ignored a few great films I've done

Renowned actor Manoj Bajpayee was felicitated with the prestigious Padma Shri award for his contribution towards Indian cinema by President Ram Nath Kovind on 11 March. While sharing his winning moment with Firstpost, he said, “It’s a huge honor for anybody. Not only for me as an actor, it’s a great recognition for any professional or for any social worker. I have never dreamt about it. I’ve never thought about it.” The Special 26 actor further added the award was a surprise for him, “I never thought that I’ll be doing something so much remarkable in my life that it will be felicitated with Padma Shri. It came as a surprise and I’m quite humbled with the way people have responded to it.” [caption id=“attachment_4177269” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Manoj Bajpayee. Facebook[/caption] National Award winner Manoj Bajpayee hails from Belwa, Bihar. He has come a long way, from a brief role in Drokaal to dacoit chief Maan Singh in _Sonchiriya_ . The actor believes that his life is an interesting ride. “It has been a roller coaster ride but I enjoyed all of it. I enjoyed the lows, I enjoyed the highs. In my case, the lows were way too many but again, I never thought that. Even in my lows, I was doing some work which will be noticed in the future.” He further added that nostalgia slows him down, and he avoids looking back and intends to look ahead. Bajpayee has huge respect for Mahesh Bhatt as according to him, he was the one who showed faith in him and supported him, “Mr Mahesh Bhatt has been a person who has encouraged me when I was doing series Swabhimaan. He is the person who picked me up, gave me Tamanna and (has) shown a lot of faith in me”. He explained why it was difficult for him to shine in his initial career, before Satya gave him the breakthrough recognition. “In those days, it was very difficult for any filmmaker to find a suitable role for me because the time was different, and my taste and my persona was not something which could find a role very easily in the kind of films which were made. So I could easily understand the difficulty Mr Mahesh Bhatt was having, but one thing is very sure that he has never hesitated to encourage me, motivate me”. Recently, the actor shared his opinion about how his film _Gali Guleiyan_  was not nominated in the mainstream awards on social media. He clarified that it was just his observation and nothing else. Manoj further said that the category of Best Actor (Critics) in commercial awards are just there to keep everyone happy, “It’s a way you satisfy everybody (laughs). That’s a very sweet way of telling people that ‘you’re also good and no hard feelings. I note it (his tweet) as an observation. It was not a complaint. It was not in anger. I don’t get angry now. I just realised that I am so used to it that it doesn’t affect me. I didn’t mean to point finger at anybody. It is just a true observation. Look at my career from the time of Shool, Satya till now, and that is the way life has been”. Manoj also added that apart from the commercial awards, even National Awards have avoided some of his work, “Year after year they (National Awards) have ignored a few of the great films that I have done”. The Aligarh actor has an appeal regarding the ongoing awards trend, “I request and urge all the awards people to choose and celebrate excellence, because by not doing that, they’re taking over the credibility from their own awards and by celebrating lesser deserving people, you’re setting a very wrong precedent, that even by being an average performer, you can always win an award, which is not a right precedent for our country”. The Rajneeti actor will soon come with his web show  _The Family Man_ , directed by Raj and DK. He guarantees that it will be an unforgettable experience for the viewers.