Manoj Pahwa had a solid 2024 with some great performances in the Netflix series IC 814 The Kandahar Hijack, and the Alia Bhatt-starrer film Jigra and in a recent interview, he shared that sometimes, giving a good performance is just not enough. He said that despite the quality of performances seen in a film, it is not necessary that a film would do well commercially. In an exclusive chat with SCREEN, Manoj said that he tries to detach himself from a film’s box office results but he has had regrets in the past where a film passed on by him has done well at the box office.
Speaking to SCREEN, Manoj talked about his role in Jigra, and how it failed to earn at the box office despite being one of his best performances. “This is not the first time. This has happened with me a lot of times. A lot of times, movies with really amazing performances never see the light of day. Woh release hi nahi ho pati (They don’t get a release). A lot of times it happens that certain films don’t work at the box office. What I do to be unaffected is, I stop caring after I am done with that particular role. I don’t care whether or not the film has done well.” He added, “I have starred in a lot of films where I believed I did well, but unfortunately they never released. This happens a lot. It is very common.”
Watch the full interview here:
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While Manoj says the he tries to stay zen after a film’s release, he admitted that he has regretted passing on some roles in the past. “A lot of times you don’t take up a certain project for whatever reasons, but later when it does well, you feel bad. You regret not taking it up. And sometimes, you end up doing certain projects, which you regret or wish you didn’t do. Afsos hota hai ki yaar yeh toh itna mazedar nahi bana (You regret that this wasn’t made well).”
Manoj, who has been active in the industry since 1984, says shifting from one role to another doesn’t scare him. “When you are working in a job for a very long time, you don’t see a job as easy or difficult. If you will order a carpenter to make you a table, will he work on it or will he get scared to do it? It’s his job to make those things. Because you are trained to do a certain thing, you don’t get hassled. You know you have to do different roles, as and when a new role or character comes, we get trained to do it. We don’t get scared,” he said.
