Pankaj Tripathi is one actor whom the younger generation today look up to when it comes to acting and the craft. Now, isn’t it surprising to learn that he too, was once someone who looked up to another actor before he started his career? Pankaj shared that he has always been a huge fan of actor Manoj Bajpayee. Both of them appeared on The Kapil Sharma Show and the Stree actor shared an anecdote about this one time long ago when he offered to keep the chappals that Manoj had forgotten behind at the hotel he worked in.
Narrating the incident, Pankaj said that this was long before his acting career when he was working as a kitchen supervisor at Hotel Maurya.
He says:
I got a call that Manoj ji was there. I used to do theatre back then, so the kitchen staff knew it. I told them that whenever he orders anything from his room, I’ll be the one to take it. So I went to his room, met bhaiyya, said ‘Pranaam, even I am into theatre’, touched his feet and left the room. The next day he checked out and left for the airport. But he left his hawaai chappal behind. The housekeeping supervisor said ‘Arre! Your Manoj bhai is gone but he left his chappal here’. Then I said don’t submit it, give it to me.
The audience found his story amusing and broke into laughter, but he continued saying, “Kyun? Eklavya ki tarah agar main inke khadau mein apna paer daal lu (Why? If like Eklavya, I could also slide my feet into his slipper)…” and while he was saying that, he breaks down and fights to hold his tears back. Manoj then goes on to give him a hig.
Watch the video here:
ज़िंदगी बहुत सारे उपहार रखती है मनोज भैया @BajpayeeManoj 🙏🏾। “एकलव्य की तरह अगर मैं इनके खड़ाऊँ में अपना पैर डाल लूँगा” । https://t.co/Nb6iVuLzkl
— पंकज त्रिपाठी (@TripathiiPankaj) September 19, 2019
The audience were very touched by the kind of love and respect the two actors had for each other and ended up giving them a standing ovation. So nice to see how far Pankaj has come from being a kitchen supervisor to one of the most critically acclaimed actors in our country today.
On the work front, Pankaj just appeared in Sacred Games 2 and is all set to star in the film, ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl‘, where he is going to play the role of Ginjan’s father, opposite Janhvi Kapoor. Manoj Bajpayee on the other hand just came out with the Amazon Prime show, The Family Man.