Manoj Bajpayee made a big revelation about his role in the film Veer Zara

Mumbai: Manoj Bajpayee played a small role in Yash Chopra’s superhit classic Veer Zaara. He played Preity Zinta’s fiance in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer and his role was small. However, Manoj feels that he should have done more scenes in the film to understand the greyness of his character properly. Manoj told Radio Nasha, “Yash Chopra told me, ‘This is the role I have made for you. I mostly make romantic films, but when I had to cast for this role, I was thinking only of you.’ Yash ji had seen me in Pinjar and that is why he cast me for that role.” He said, “I know it was a love story and more focus has been given to the hero and heroine of the film, but to show the greyness of my character, I feel there should have been some more scenes.” Shah Rukh Khan and Manoj Bajpayee have a long association. Both were part of Barry John’s theatre group in Delhi. At that time, both Manoj and Shah Rukh were trying to establish themselves as actors and were struggling with their financial situation. In a previous interview, Manoj recalled how he and Shah Rukh used to share cigarettes during their theatre days.

Speaking to Galta India, Manoj said, “When you are in a theatre group and someone is smoking, they never smoke alone. Nobody smokes a cigarette alone because nobody can afford it. So if someone had one cigarette, he had to share it with four people.” He further added, “Even if they have the money to buy a pack of cigarettes or buy one cigarette, they cannot smoke it alone because other people have already shared it with them and now it is their turn to share it.” Manoj said that while he was in Barry John’s theatre group for a few years, Shah Rukh was a part of it for a few months before coming to Mumbai and starting his career in Bollywood. Manoj revealed that he came to Mumbai only after working in Shekhar Kapur’s ‘Bandit Queen’.

Earlier, in an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Manoj had said that it was Shah Rukh who took him to a discotheque for the first time. “He (SRK) was the only person who would come in a Maruti van. Maruti vans in those days, red in colour, I still remember that. He is the one who took me to a discotheque for the first time at Taj in Delhi. I mean we were very young, we had just come out of our teens and we met. He was part of Barry John’s group for a while,” the actor said.