Hansal Mehta’s 2000 comedy-drama Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, starring Manoj Bajpayee, Tabu, and Saurabh Shukla, turns 24 today. On the film’s anniversary, Bajpayee spoke exclusively to Zoom about the special project. He recalled having differences with his friend and filmmaker, among other things.
Manoj, October 6 marks 24 years of one of your earliest triumphs.
So good to know that Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar has completed 24 years, one year away from silver jubilee. Wow! This film has been very, very close to me. When I got huge recognition with Satya, it was a promise to myself that I’ll tell all my filmmaker friends who were, you know, trying to make films, if they could use this opportunity to make a film with me.
You mean a film on your own terms?
A film which we all wanted to make and could not make during those very commercial times. The films that I wanted to do, the film, the story that I wanted to be part of, the roles that I wanted to perform were not something which were churned out every day.
A far cry from today’s times when an actor like you can do anything.
Yes, very unlike today’s times. So I used to be sitting at home waiting for the next one and meanwhile, I spoke to Hansal Mehta, who was a very dear friend of mine and we agreed to do a film, a story that we always wanted to make. Saurabh Shukla was contacted to write the screenplay and dialogue.
I believe completing the film was an ordeal.
We found our own independent producers and each and every day of the shoot was a battle that all of us were fighting together.
You also had differences of opinion with Hansal Mehta during the making of Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar.
Yes, there were conflicts, there were difference of opinion. Yes, there were some creative clashes, some definitely ego clashes too. But this was all because, you know, all of those people, all of us, were desperate to make a kind of film that we envisioned for ourselves.
How do you look back on the experience?
Many members of the team remember it as the point of conflict among friends. I remember it as an accomplishment or also an achievement in the time which was not at all supporting these kind of stories or these kind of makers or the actors. So for me, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar is a very special film and I’ll always be very, very proud of it. And that’s how I would like to remember Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar every time. It was a film ahead of its time. I would personally urge everyone to somewhere find it and watch it.
