Manoj's new avatar

Manoj Bajpai

Manoj Bajpai has left for his village Belwa in Bihar for some rest and relaxation, but he has left a satisfied man. Says the actor, "The Bihar government asked me to help organise the state's first ever film festival in Patna (February 9 to 15), and the response we got was great. It gave me a lot of satisfaction."

Promoting spree

What is more exciting for Manoj is that theatre maven Makarand Deshpande's film Hanan was selected as the closing film at the festival.

Besides Manoj, the film also stars Sonali Kulkarni. Says Bajpai, "Hanan is the story of two innocent, religious people and how people use their belief in God to exploit them.

This eventually leads to their beliefs getting completely destroyed. The producers of the film, Sahara, plan to market and release the film in April this year."

So how did Manoj get roped in to help organise the Patna Film Festival? "The government approached me through the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

They wanted me to become the face of the festival in Mumbai, so I've been talking to several producers and directors to show their films there. With the kind of response we got this year, it looks like it will become a major event in the next five years."

Home boy

Some of the films shown were Bicycle Thief, Damul and Traffic. Informs Manoj, "Sanjay Jha and Nagesh Kukunoor came. Anurag Kashyap was also supposed to come. Vishal Bhardwaj and Madhur Bhandarkar also attended."

http://www.mid-day.com/hitlist/2007/february/152096.htm

Gracella😛