This actor lived on a rooftop, starved for days, gatecrashed film sets for food; became one of India's biggest OTT stars

From Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan, many superstars once used to struggle to survive in Mumbai, faced extreme conditions . This actor, who once didn't have a house, used to live on a rooftop (barsati) in Delhi in extreme conditions, later turned out to be a superstar on OTT. 

The actor we are talking about once didn't have money for food, starved for days and later decided to gatecrash film sets to assure a meal for himself in a day. He is Manoj Bajpayee. 

Manoj Bajpayee used to live in Bettiah in West Champaran, Bihar and do farming during his vacation. He always wanted to be an actor and thus, he moved to Delhi at the age of 17. There he decided to apply in National School of Drama but after getting rejected three times, he wanted to end his life. However, later when he applied in NSD, they offered him a teaching position instead. 

In a conversation with Ritesh Agarwal for Mint, Manjoj Bajpayee recalled his stay in Delhi and said, "I still shudder when I think of my days in a barsati. I used to live in Mukherjee Nagar. The only advantage of a barsati is that they are cheap. But it used to get extremely hot in the summers and extremely cold in the winters. If the temperature outside was 40 degrees, it would feel like 45 degrees inside. It was hell.”

He later moved to Mumbai and had to face immense struggle before he could make it big in the industry. He revealed, "I wasn’t good physically. I was also down mentally and emotionally. There was not a lot to do there. I was only wandering from studio to studio in search of work. I was completely broke. It is quiet an expensive place to live. There was no guarantee of where you will find your next meal. I would starve the whole day. Production people would chase us out when we would approach them for work.”

To overcome starvation and arrange food for himself, he tried some tricks and said, "Eventually, I learnt tricks to arrange for food. I used to go to a set exactly when they would have lunch break. I used to find a familiar face first and then our conversation would lead to, ‘I am going to grab a bite, you want to join?’ And I would be like, ‘Sure’. We used to put a lot of thought in arranging food.”

According to Box Office India, Manoj Bajpayee, who made his debut with Bandit Queen, has given over 45 flop films, but has at the same time made his mark in Bollywood with hits and blockbusters like Baaghi 2, Veer-Zara, Fiza, Satya, Special 26 and Satyamev Jayate among others. 

However, he is an even bigger star on OTT. The actor made his debut on OTT with the show The Family Man and won everyone with his performance. The actor then went on to give several hit films on OTT like Silence, Gulmohar, Dial 100, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai and more and emerged as a superstar. He now lives a luxurious life with his family in Mumbai.

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