Manoj Bajpayee says he used to get calls at odd hours from people who would ‘bully’ and ‘threaten’ him

Manoj Bajpayee said that he would get calls at odd hours, sometimes from drunk people who would threaten him, earlier. Now, he simply does not answer the phone after 7.30 in the evening.

In his upcoming film, Dial 100, Manoj Bajpayee plays a police officer who gets a distress call from a grieving mother (played by Neena Gupta) who is seeking revenge for her son’s death. The film is slated for a direct-to-digital release on Zee5 on August 6.

Speaking to Zoom about whether he has received any scary calls in real life, Manoj said, “Oh, many times! In my earlier days, I used to pick up every call and they used to call at odd hours like 12.30-1.30 am. Sometimes people used to bully me, sometimes they would have fun at my cost, sometimes they used to threaten me because they were drunk and were just having fun. Those were the early days."

“But after that, now I do not pick up any call after 7:30 pm. I am talking to you this late evening because this is the job that I have to do. Otherwise, after 7-7.30pm, I put my phone on silent and put it away,” he added.

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Manoj made his Bollywood debut with Bandit Queen in 1994. He starred in films such as Satya, Kaun, Pinjar, Gangs of Wasseypur, Special 26 and Aiyaary. He was seen in three digital projects this year - the Zee5 original film Silence... Can You Hear It?, the second season of the Amazon Prime series The Family Man and the Netflix anthology Ray.

Manoj also won the third National Award of his career earlier this year. He was honoured with the Best Actor award for his performance in Bhosle.