Acclaimed Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee‘s latest film, “Despatch,” directed by Kanu Behl, played at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa and is set to stream on ZEE5 Global.
In “Despatch,” Bajpayee plays Joy, a seasoned crime editor at a Mumbai tabloid who becomes entangled in a dangerous investigation while struggling to maintain his relevance in the digital age. As he pursues a story involving organized crime, political corruption and corporate takeovers, Joy’s professional ambitions collide with his complex personal life, leading to dangerous consequences.
“Though it’s undercurrent is of a thriller, the way [Behl] has treated it is quite fascinating,” Bajpayee says. “People are finding the whole approach of not really flowing with the events and focusing rather on those events actually inside the human being, inside that character, and in the darkness of his own personality, which is far scarier than the events which are unfolding.”
Despite warnings about Behl’s reputation as a challenging director, Bajpayee was drawn to both the script and the opportunity to work with the filmmaker. “Once I knew that the script is good, I wanted to just collaborate because everybody scared me about Kanu Behl that he is, is a very difficult director. He can actually break you… and the more people told me about, about the stories from the set, the more determined I became to work in this film because I really wanted to experience his approach, experience, how he is having this reputation. Is it true? Or is he taking you on some kind of a journey which is going to be far more worthwhile as an actor and as a human being,” Bajpayee says.
One particularly intense scene involved Bajpayee’s character beating up another actor in a police station. After multiple takes, the co-actor began bleeding from his nose, causing Bajpayee to storm off set. When Behl followed him to his van, rather than offering comfort, the director challenged Bajpayee’s assertion that it was “just a film.”
“We are not making just a film. We are making a great film,” Behl told him, according to Bajpayee. “He introduces that aspect of your humanity and your actor to you yourself.”
For his role as a journalist, Bajpayee drew from his extensive connections in the field. “I have many very close friends who are investigative journalists from Delhi and from Mumbai, people who I have been meeting for many years to really understand the nature of their job, the conflict and the dichotomy that they live with,” he says.
The choice to release on ZEE5 Global was strategic, with Bajpayee noting the platform’s strong presence in tier two and three cities in India, as well as its reach with the diaspora audience. “That is the only platform watched by the diaspora,” he says, adding that his previous film “Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai” helped build an audience for his independent cinema on the platform.
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