This story is from March 7, 2008

'I can't pretend'

AMRITA DIDYALA / TNN / Mar 7, 2008, 00:00 IST

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TOI in a candid chat with Bhojpuri cinema’s official badshah, Manoj Tiwari.

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Manoj Tiwari (TOI Photo)For Bhojpuri film and music buffs, Manoj Tiwari is demi-god.
The charismatic, softspoken supersinger-superstar was one of the forces instrumental in giving Bhojpuri films a new lease of life and direction.
A devotional singer, Manoj never really envisaged the kind of success that is his middle name today when he did the Bhojpuri devotional album, ��Badi Sher pe Savaar�� which made him a voice to reckon with.
And coming at a time when his previous albums had turned out to be major disasters, the success of this album changed his life in many ways. His initial failure as a singer, urged him to do better.

��When I saw my albums flop miserably, I just had to prove myself as a singer. I gave up my job as a sub inspector of police to pursue singing seriously,�� remembers Manoj.
From devotional to folk music and then acting in Bhojpuri cinema, Manoj��s career has been on an upswing for sometime now.
The badshah of Bhojpuri cinema, as they call him, starred in the first Bhojpuri blockbuster Sasura Bada Paisewala (made with a modest budget of Rs 30 lakh), which earned Rs 35 crore at the box-office.

��You could say, this film changed the fortune of the Bhojpuri film industry and inspired confidence among financers. Today, investing in Bhojpuri cinema is cool. Sasura... heralded the beginning of good times for our film industry in 2005,�� says the former captain of the Banaras Hindu University cricket team.
And now Manoj is going small too, as he makes his debut on a reality show, Chak de Bachche ( 9X). While acting in the village ��Ram Lila�� was his initial paathshala, Manoj believes, ��An anchor should know what to say and when. Take for example Mr Amitabh Bachchan, who always made guests on his TV show very comfortable. He never talked down to people, even children. There was a sense of bonding with the audience. I think, that��s what I want to do as an anchor.��
Dubbing his journey so far as a ��chamatkarik (magical)�� one, Manoj feels his outspoken nature has earned him many enemies in the film fraternity, but he��d still like to be ��honest�� with ��myself and people. I can��t pretend.��
Now, he��s also bagged a lead role in a Bollywood flick, Sher Shah Suri, a project he doesn��t want to talk much about.
��I want to make a quiet start in Bollywood, I don��t want people to talk about my film before it hits the screens. I want my work to speak for me. And if I don��t make it as a commercial actor, I won��t have anything to lose anyway, because I am not a known name in Bollywood really,�� he says. After Sher Shah Suri (which Manoj has also scripted) he��s got Bhojpuri flicks like Ae Bhouji ke Sister, Thela no. 501, Bhole Shankar. Manoj also has plans for a Bhojpuri television channel soon and taking his Bhojpuri Academy to 17 countries.
As if that is not enough on his platter, he is even planning to wear the director��s hat for a big ticket Hindi film this year. Here��s one actor who clearly believes in being multi-faceted and making the most of each role he plays in life!

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