He’s played many men of impact and importance — Satya’s Bhiku Mhatre to Gangs of Wasseypur’s Sardar Khan. In Aligarh, Manoj Bajpayee slips into the real-life shoes of Ramchandra Siras, a professor at Aligarh Muslim University who was sacked and humiliated and driven to suicide. t2 caught up with Bajpayee on the role for which he’s been getting high praise.... 

You’ve had a lot of screenings of Aligarh before release. What’s been the best thing that people have told you about your film? 

The one consistent feedback that I have been getting is that the film has moved them beyond any explanation. Some of them are writing in to me the day after watching the film, confessing that they have spent a sleepless night. The story of Prof Siras’s life and what he had to go through because of his sexual preference has really impacted a lot of people. Whoever has watched it has told me that the story’s not leaving them… that’s an amazing, amazing feat for any film. 

Did you have similar feelings when you first heard the story? 

It’s very difficult to gauge how the audience will react to a film while you are making it, but from the moment I heard the story, I knew that this would be a special film in my career. I have played the gentlest person I have come across… a person who is totally filled with love… someone who doesn’t have a single evil bone in his body. I just felt whatever Siras was feeling while he was subjected to all that humiliation… but the impact on the audience is a whole lot more because they are watching the film in totality. 

You apparently knew nothing about Prof Siras till you were approached for the role…

Nothing… absolutely nothing! Such a fine human being was so mercilessly plucked out from this planet… someone who deserved so much love and dignity and respect… and we didn’t even know about him. It just goes to show how little we know about the people who don’t matter to us. And that I didn’t know about Prof Siras is a big blot on me… I have no qualms in admitting that. 

Hansal Mehta has told us how challenging making the film was, and not only from the point of view of its contentious material. Did you feel the same? 

For sure. I have done a lot of challenging roles in my career and Aligarh definitely ranks somewhere at the top. The whole film has been a challenge… from directing to acting to scripting to even lighting and props. The characters are real and so are the locations and we were working in locations that you wouldn’t have seen in a film before.
But honestly, in the present scenario, the challenge that comes with a film happens after the film has been made! (Laughs) Besides the usual headache of how to market the film so that it reaches out to the maximum number of people, there’s also something bigger we have to contend with today… and that’s censorship. But I have learnt to live with it. Every filmmaker has learnt to deal with the unfairness of the censor board… and this is how it will continue and we will keep fighting.

You last worked with Hansal Mehta 16 years ago in Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! and he counts you as one of his closest friends. What was it like reuniting on set?

Both of us have evolved and matured in our personal and professional lives. He has a very evolved political view now and isn’t afraid of taking on the establishment. I respect him as a filmmaker and a person and one thing we both have in common is that we constantly strive for excellence in our work. There is a constant hunger in both of us to go one step up every time we make a new film. He’s been a close friend for 22 years… he was one of my first friends when I relocated from Delhi to Bombay. Our friendship is based on trust and affection and complete respect for each other. 

Finally, what’s the big message of Aligarh for the viewer? 

This film is going to be quite an education and will shatter many myths associated with homosexuality that are unnecessarily propagated in our country. The film constantly says that members of the gay community are just normal people… just like us. The film shatters a lot of stereotypes and I am hopeful it will change a lot of mindsets. The big message of Aligarh is that judge a person for what he is and not what his preference in his bedroom is.