From Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan, many superstars once used to struggle to survive in Mumbai, faced extreme conditions . This actor, who once didn't have a house, used to live on a rooftop (barsati) in Delhi in extreme conditions, later turned out to be a superstar on OTT. The actor we are talking about once didn't have money for food, starved for days and later decided to gatecrash film sets to assure a meal for himself in a day.
He is Manoj Bajpayee. Manoj Bajpayee used to live in Bettiah in West Champaran, Bihar and do farming during his vacation. He always wanted to be an actor and thus, he moved to Delhi at the age of 17.
There he decided to apply in National School of Drama but after getting rejected three times, he wanted to end his life. However, later when he applied in NSD, they offered him a teaching position instead. In a conversation with Ritesh Agarwal for Mint, Manjoj Bajpayee recalled his stay in Delhi and said, "I still shudder when I think of my days in a barsati.
I used to live in Mukherjee Nagar. The only advantage of a barsati is that they are cheap. But it used to get extremely hot in the summers and extremely cold in the winters.
If the temperature outside was 40 degrees, it would feel like 45 degrees inside. It was hell.” He later moved to Mumbai and had to face immense struggle before he could make it big in the industry.
He revealed, "I wasn’t good physically. I was also down mentally and emotionally. There was not a lot to do there.
I was.