Director Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh starring Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao is the opening film at this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. Set in a town in Uttar Pradesh from which the film takes its name, Aligarh is based on a real-life incident. In the film, Manoj plays Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, an Aligarh Muslim University professor whose services were terminated because of his sexuality.
“His is an amazing journey. In the technical sense of the word, he is the ‘hero’ of the film and the story, but all he wanted was to be normal. He just wanted to live his life quietly and normally like any other human being. It’s very sad that when we talk about homosexuals, we don’t think of them as ‘regular’ humans. Why not? They have the same set of challenges, similar things make them happy, angry or sad. I never thought of Siras as a gay professor. For me, he was just a professor. His sexual orientation doesn’t define the human being that he was. There was so much to learn from him,” says the 46-year-old actor.
This is the first time in almost two decades that a Hindi film is opening the festival. Aligarh has already created a lot of buzz at screenings in BFI London Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival. “I was supposed to go to London, but unfortunately I couldn’t. I was on a holiday with my family in the US. My daughter had holiday from school, so… I wish I could have been there. Hansal told me how much they loved the film.”
The film touches on the subjects of privacy, morality, sexuality and intolerance. For Manoj, the biggest take-away was Dr Sirsa’s humanity. “I think I have become a better person from having lived this character briefly. He doesn’t want to intrude into anyone’s life and he wants the same courtesy to be extended to him. Till the end, he fought relentlessly for his right to privacy.”
Manoj’s connect with the film is made stronger because his belief is not very different from Aligarh’s central message. “The biggest thing this film makes you think about is that it should be possible to co-exist with people of opposing views… you don’t have to interfere in each other’s lives. This is also how I like to live my life.”
The film reunites Manoj with his Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar director and one of his oldest friends in the industry, Hansal. “We go back a long way, so there is a lot of comfort level. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We just chatted about this film like we would about things happening around us. I just knew what was expected of me.”
Manoj might not have received a specific brief on how to play Dr Siras, but he knew exactly what he didn’t want for the character. “Bollywood’s portrayal of homosexuals has almost always followed a certain template. They are always effeminate in our films. Like I said, I don’t think his sexuality was his identity. The film is more about his journey and his loneliness rather than his sexuality.” The professor passed away five years ago and the only footage Manoj had was a “one-minute interview that he did with Barkha Dutt where he answered one question”. “So, whatever you see in the film is my interpretation,” he adds.
This is the first time Manoj has worked with Rajkummar Rao and he is quite impressed with the young actor. “What I loved about him is that he is such an effortless actor. He doesn’t take himself too seriously. The ease with which he becomes the character is very apparent in his performances. I think, he is at the right place at the right time…most of us weren’t as lucky as he is (laughs). The industry should give him as much good work as possible. He is an exceptional talent.”