Manoj Bajpayee is on a high, having won his fourth National Award recently, the latest one being a Special Mention honour for his heartwarming and impactful performance in Gulmohar. Also starring Sharmila Tagore, along with a strong ensemble cast, as a matriarch whose decision to live alone sparks tremors in her family (along with Bajpayee’s Arun as her son) even as they are ready to move out of their home of many decades, the film directed by first-time filmmaker Rahul V. Chittela, has also won a National Award for Best Hindi Film and Best Screenplay (Dialogues). t2 caught up with Manoj Bajpayee and Rahul Chittela for a chat on the win(s) and more.
Congratulations on the multiple National Awards for Gulmohar! What are the primary emotions like?
Manoj Bajpayee: For me, the primary emotion is ‘yahoo!’ I feel elated that it has ended so well for us... whether it is Rahul (V. Chitella) and Arpita (Mukherjee) as the writers of Gulmohar, for Rahul as director and for the entire cast and crew that put in so much hard work. It has been such a long journey. We had been waiting for this film (streaming on Disney+Hotstar) to happen since Rahul approached me in 2019.
From there to shooting the film, to winning a few awards at some mainstream awards to the huge honours at the National Awards, it really is a great conclusion to such a gem of a film.
Rahul V. Chittela: It is the first National Award for me and such a big honour. It feels very nice that we won the Best Hindi Film, because like Manoj said, all of us put our heart and soul into Gulmohar.
Like he said, I cast him and Sharmilaji (Tagore) in 2019. We were supposed to shoot the film in 2020, but Covid happened. Then we planned the shoot for 2021, but the second wave (of the pandemic) happened. We finally got down to shooting it in 2022 and released it last year.
It has been a very long journey. I am grateful to my cast and crew because they all stuck around with him (Manoj) and Sharmilaji... all of them told me: ‘Whenever you shoot the film, we are there with you... we will be there whenever you roll the camera.’ That, in itself, was a big award for all of us. The National Awards are the cherry on the cake.
Manoj, you said you spoke to Sharmila Tagore right after the awards were announced. What was that conversation like?
Manoj: Her voice was shaking with emotion (smiles). She was so happy. She is a lady with so much grace and experience. She has received so many laurels in her career but her connection to Gulmohar is really special. She was so happy for me... it felt like she had won the award (Special Mention) herself.
We are all very attached to Sharmilaji. Whenever I am in Delhi, where she largely lives, we party together. I always look forward to sitting with her and chatting with her about our experiences. She is very learned and there is so much to love about the opinions she has.
Since the release of the film in March last year to now, given that it is on streaming for perpetuity and posterity, what is the most heartwarming feedback that has come in for a film as heartwarming as Gulmohar?
Rahul: I am going to be a real fanboy here. Both Sharmilaji and I called each other and were jumping with joy when Waheedaji (Waheeda Rehman) watched the film and messaged both of us saying how much she had loved Gulmohar! She said she thoroughly enjoyed the film and blessed the team. Sharmilaji has, of course, worked with Waheedaji, but she is also a big fan of hers. I still have that message with me and I will treasure it forever.
Manoj: I have lost count of the number of people from the industry who watched the film and then dropped me a text. I also invited a lot of people from the fraternity to watch the film. I remember (actor-anchor) Maniesh Paul walking out of a screening in tears. Tanujaji walked out of a screening of Gulmohar and was completely blown by it. Just seeing her in the theatre watching our film was a huge thing. She had so many good things to say about the film.
Manoj, you have played innumerable memorable characters in your career so far. Where would you place Gulmohar’s Arun in terms of resonance and why do you think the character had the impact that it did?
Arun: Arun is so caring and it is to the credit of the film’s strong and layered writing that his care is perceived differently by different members of his family. His mother (played by Tagore) sees it differently, his son (played by Suraj Sharma) has a different viewpoint about his father’s care and concern. I found that to be a very human thing and that resonated deeply with me.
Rahul, the mark of a good film is when people watch it and they not only see the things that you as a filmmaker are trying to show them but also have their own interpretations of it. Were there any instances like that for Gulmohar?
Rahul: There are many and it was right from when we started shooting. We edited the film at a place very close to Manoj’s house and every time we would meet, he would be like a curious child and ask me: ‘How is it looking? How are the scenes measuring up? What are the performances looking like?’ He would be involved not only in his scenes but have his eye on the film as a whole.
On set, I would often be surprised by how the actors — especially Manoj — would pull off a particular scene or moment. On set, as a director, you are dealing with so much that you have a set idea sometimes about how you want a scene to be done. It is really at the edit when you have performances that surprise you and that happened many times in Gulmohar, which made me realise that I had struck gold.
It is the small nuances. Gulmohar is very simply told and saying something with simplicity is the toughest thing to achieve. By that I don’t only mean the writing, but also the acting. Kudos to everyone in the team for surrendering to that idea of telling it in a very simple way, which was very complex to get right.
Rahul, how has your mentor Mira Nair, who also happened to read the first draft of Gulmohar, reacted to the win?
Rahul: She has been very, very kind. She messaged me as soon as she heard the news. Mira, Arpita and I work very closely together across projects. I will be meeting Mira in the next few days and we hope to party soon in Bombay.
A few members of the team have already had a get-together. As soon as we finished shoot last Friday evening, Manoj, along with Shabana (wife) and Ava (daughter) got together and had a celebration. The following day, he came home and with my family, we opened a few bottles of champagne and celebrated. What was nice was that everyone in the room felt like they had won, which is a big victory for us.
Manoj, the reward for any creative person lies in the satisfaction that your work gives you and, of course, the appreciation from the audience. What do awards mean to you? Do you look at them as necessary encouragement in your career?
Manoj: It is definitely an encouragement and a pat on one’s back. Also, the win feels much sweeter when you know that your film has won without anyone lobbying for it or pushing it. That is the time when an award makes sense to me. All the mainstream awards that I have got so far— and this I am saying with all genuineness — have been without anyone lobbying for me. I feel completely satisfied and very, very happy that Gulmohar won these three awards on its own merit. And I am going to show it off by giving it a very special place in my home.
