Manoj Bajpayee’s Father Auditioned at FTII in the Presence of Dharmendra

Manoj Bajpayee failed to get into National School of Drama, his dream school.

Manoj Bajpayee with his father.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

In Piyush Pandey’s book, 'Manoj Bajpayee: The Definitive Biography,' it was revealed that Manoj Bajpayee's father, Radhakant Bajpayee, had once auditioned in front of Dharmendra at FTII. Moreover, the book also discloses that the now-famous Gangs of Wasseypur actor wanted to get into NSD but failed to do so.

An excerpt from the book revealed that Manoj's father had coincidentally auditioned for a role at FTII. In the excerpt, quoted by his elder sister Kamini Shukla, his father had gone on a trip to Pune to visit the institution, and when he saw some auditions taking place, he also auditioned.

“While cleaning our house during the Chhath festival, we found a prospectus of the Pune Film Institute in father’s belongings. Manoj also saw it. Then our father revealed how his college’s botany department had taken them on a trip to Pune. Because he had heard of the institute, he went to the campus. Auditions were taking place at that time. He too auditioned for an acting course. The interesting thing is the presence of Manoj Kumar and Dharmendra in the campus during the same time.”

While the fact that Manoj could not get into NSD (National School of Drama) was also disclosed in the book. In the book, the actor talks about the fact that one of his two close friends got into college. Vijay Raj and Manoj failed but Tigmanshu Dhulia, their other friend, got in. An excerpt from the book talks about how the actor felt after his failure.

He states, ‘I failed, and it was a heart-wrenching experience because I didn’t have a plan B. I confined myself to a room. Weird thoughts persisted, and one of them was of suicide. Friends came to my support and inspired me to leave the failure behind.’

Manoj is known for his films Gangs of Wasseypur and was last seen in Killer Soup.