You cannot afford to ignore, crush talent, must give a chance to someone: Manoj Bajpayee

Manoj Bajpayee is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming film titled Bhonsle which will be streamed on Sony LIV. The actor has been known to play challenging roles for the past two decades and is touted as one of the best actors Indian cinema has ever witnessed. In this film, he will be seen playing the role of a cop who has been forced to retire. Now, during an interaction with WION, Manoj spoke about the ongoing nepotism debate in Bollywood and the harsh reality of the film industry.

The actor stated, "Let me start with this, the world is not fair. I have been saying this for 20 years that as an industry we celebrate mediocrity. Forget about the industry, as a nation we celebrate mediocrity. Something is lacking somewhere in our thought process, our value system. When we see talent, we immediately want to ignore or push it away. This is the value system of ours which is so deplorable."

Manoj further shared, "I have said it before that this industry has wasted talent; so much that in any other country those talents who have not been given their due here, would have been known as the best actors of the world. But we don't care. Firstly, if you don't have talent then you have to be extremely lucky to get by. This is the system I am talking about. This is the cold value of this industry."

Bajpayee also said, "I am not blaming anyone. I am a part of this industry. This is why I said in my past interviews that we have to look inward and rectify that. Rectify, or you will keep getting flak for it, cursed for it and will keep on losing the respect of the common people."

He concluded by talking about how talent cannot be ignored and shouldn't be ignored. Manoj went on to say, "You can't do it. You cannot afford to ignore talent, crush talent, and must give a chance to someone, no matter if he/she is an outsider or insider. Give a chance to somebody who is less capable."