Manoj Bajpayee recalls being referred to as an adult star and receiving racial remarks from critics: ‘That really hurt me’

Bollywood actor

Manoj Bajpayee

, who is busy with the promotions of his upcoming crime-action thriller film titled ‘Bhaiyya Ji’, discussed facing

racism

and biased reviewers during his earliest days of struggle.
In a recent interview with Siddharth Kannan, Manoj Bajpayee opened up about receiving flak for playing the character of Maharaja in ‘Zubeida’ over his looks.

He shared, “Some

critics

wrote ‘He’s good but he doesn’t fit the role, he’s good but he doesn’t look like a prince.’ I thought these people are so liberal and evolved that they do not realise they are such big racists . They were too racist. Then I showed it to a few of my friends. I said, ‘How should I take it?’ They said ‘Spit it off, this is biased and in its core it is a racist thing.’ But today when I was doing interviews for Bhaiyya Ji, four out of five journalists were talking about my performance in

Zubeida

.”
He even disclosed that he has paper cuttings where people talked about him in a ‘brutal’ and ‘racist’ manner. He further added, “I personally don’t answer the criticism at all. Yes, sometimes I do quote fake news report and ask ‘when did I say this.’ But if you will talk about my bad performance and my looks, I will not retort back. I will let it go, because the answer lies in the future which can only come through my work. I have many cuttings (newspaper reviews) where people have been very brutal, lethal and racist. I did a film called Fareh, it wasn’t well made and it failed, it happens sometimes. Somebody wrote, ‘Now Bhikhu Matre of Satya has become a p**n star.’ That hurt me, it really offended me.”
He concluded by saying, “No reviewer has the right to go that dirty. You can talk about my film, how it is made. How does that make me a p**n star? There is nothing I did in that film to suggest that. Now my filmography is there for everyone to see. You will get your answers there.”
On the work front, Manoj Bajpayee is gearing up for the release of his 100th film ‘Bhaiyya Ji’. It is co-produced by his wife Shabana Raza Bajpayee and will be released on May 24.