When Manoj Bajpayee used to share cigarettes with Shah Rukh Khan during theatre days: ‘No one could afford to...’

The two powerhouses of talent, Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee started their acting journey together as they worked in the same theatre company under Barry John in Delhi. At that period, both actors were in a struggling phase and were still finding financial stability.

In a recent interview, the Bhaiyya Ji actor recalled sharing cigarettes with SRK during their theatre days. “When you are in a theatre group, and someone is smoking, they would never smoke alone. No one would smoke one cigarette all by themselves because no one could afford it. So if anyone had one cigarette, they had to share it with four people,” Bajpayee told Galatta India.

He added, “Even if he had the money to buy a pack of cigarette, or buy one cigarette, he could not afford to have it alone because others have shared it with him in the past and now it is his turn to share it.”

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Manoj Bajpayee spoke about his dream role and said, "I’ve never been thinking about the roles. I’ve only been thinking about the stories. And those stories can fall into any genre. It doesn’t matter. But for me, story is far more important. Script is far more important. It is something that I have not done. I’ll go ahead and do it no matter which genre it is. You know, many people say you’ve done, 5, 6 police roles in 30 years of career. Yes. I said, how does it matter? Look at it differently. How many people I have played? How many people I have played who wore the uniform. So I look look at it from that perspective. So if, again, I get a, Buddhist person’s role, which is very unique, I’ll do it, because it is about the person, it’s not about the uniform. So I’m always looking for stories and those very unique, and not exactly the genres."

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