Manoj Bajpayee: We don't encourage good writers

Manoj Bajpayee in Dial 100

Manoj Bajpayee is the happiest when he has a sharply written script in hand. He was deeply impressed with writer-director Rensil D'Silva's vision of Dial 100, a taut thriller. Noting that psychological thrillers are hard to come by, he says, "We don't have well-written psychological thrillers here because we don't encourage good writers. What I like about the genre is that it is not dependent on the background score or editing; it's the mind games that make the audience edgy."

The ZEE5 film revolves around Bajpayee's cop character who receives a mysterious call at the police control room from Seema Pallav, essayed by Neena Gupta, threatening to settle old scores with him. With the cat-and-mouse game spanning over a night, he agrees that it brought back memories of Ram Gopal Varma's slick mystery thriller he had fronted. "It reminded me of Kaun [1999]. Both films play out over one night. That said, the two are completely different. Kaun was a psychological thriller while I would term Dial 100 an emotional thriller. It addresses certain teenage issues that need to be discussed in cinema."

A still from Kaun

The actor is having a remarkable 2021 so far - where The Family Man 2 was lapped up by the audience, his performance in Netflix's Ray received glowing reviews. For him though, the highlight of the year has been meeting Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi. "I want to work with Vijay," says Bajpayee, his admiration for the actor evident in his remark. "When I went to Chennai to shoot for The Family Man 2, I wanted to meet a few directors and actors. As soon as I called him, he came to the shoot. We have mutual admiration. It's great to appreciate your contemporaries; one should not get intimidated by others' success or talent.

Instead, you should push each other [to do better]." Quiz him whether he is open to doing a Tamil film, and the actor says, "I can't speak Tamil. If I get a film with a director of my choice, I will definitely work. I will have to learn the language because I am uncomfortable with the idea of somebody else dubbing for me."

Also read: Neena Gupta: Don't like negative roles as one gets bracketed