Manoj Bajpayee recalls being mocked for his poor English

Multiple Award-winning actor Manoj Bajpayee said that he was mocked mercilessly for his poor English when he first enrolled at Delhi University. The actor, who hailed from a small town in the Indian state of Bihar, said that he wanted to ‘transform’ himself into a whole new person after enrolling at the prestigious university.

“I am from Bihar, so our pronunciation was all haywire. DU has played a major part in shaping me,” said the actor. “I always had this feeling that I am lacking a lot, coming from a place that is not exposed to this world. That sense of urgency was there in my mind and I had to reshape myself very fast. I have to adjust to this society very fast. I have to understand its ways very fast…”

The actor, who is presently busy promoting the dark comedy thriller series Killer Soup, continued, “All my roommates would make fun of me whenever I used to try and speak in English. So, I started entertaining them with my bad spoken English. I said, ‘If I don’t speak, I’ll never learn. So, let me entertain them. They used to fall laughing.”

Many years later, Bajpayee revealed, one of his old college roommates contacted him and said that he felt terrible for what happened.

“There was this guy whose father worked at the World Bank, in a very high position. He was also my roommate for two years. He used to laugh at my English the most. He used to say, ‘Hey Manoj, come here, let’s talk in English, make me laugh’. He was completely unaware of the film and theatre world.”

Also starring Konkona Sen Sharma in the lead role, Killer Soup is directed by Abhishek Chaubey. The series is scheduled to premiere on January 11 on Netflix.

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