Whenever I am planning to take a break from writing, something exciting happens that makes me want to write and capture it somewhere. I’ll keep this one short, as I’m currently rewatching Better Call Saul, and Lalo has just entered the show, and the plot is getting interesting. While I’ve seen the show before, I had forgotten how good it was. Anyway, maybe I’ll review it later.
Yesterday, I got a group call from Yash where he asked if we wanted to meet Manoj Bajpayee. If you don’t know, he is one of the finest actors in the Indian film industry. He has done some incredible work in his career and is known for his versatility. Many of you will know him from his recent Amazon show, The Family Man. But he has also done some incredible work in films like Gangs of Wasseypur, Satya, Shool, Kaun? etc.
As soon as I heard his name, I was in. How often do you get a chance to meet a legendary actor? Now, I had met him once before. It was during a screening of one of his movies - Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai. But that was very brief, and I only had the chance to shake hands with him. There were a lot of people, so he had to greet everyone. But this time, we were told that we would be meeting him in his hotel room, which meant more time and more interaction.
We went to his hotel room in the morning around 11 AM. We had brought postcards and diaries to get them signed. We walked into his room, and he was sitting on his sofa. We greeted him and then gave him the flowers that we had brought. Then we took pictures with him and later got our postcards and diaries signed. I don’t know what I will do with the autograph. I will probably pass it on to someone who likes his work. It was almost his checkout time, so we wrapped it up pretty quickly. Taha, being Taha, said something funny to him - “Patna aate rahiyega.” He laughed and said, “Hamesha aata hoon.”
That was it. It was fun meeting him. I believe we will cross paths again in the future, as he is a friend of Yash’s uncle. After that, we went to have some coffee and then went to Bollywood Treats - it’s a café below the hotel where he was staying. The café has a lot of movie posters and memorabilia. We had our lunch there, and I came back home. I had not taken leave from the office, but I hardly worked in the first half of the day. But that was all. Short, as promised earlier. I’ll end this with some pictures from today.
