Bajpayee, Ahlawat on 'The Family Man 3': All about learning from each other

Mumbai: Years after they played son and father in Gangs of Wasseypur, Manoj Bajpayee and Jaideep Ahlawat reunite in The Family Man 3 where they are enemies. And the two can't stop praising each other.

Ahlawat, 45, has deep respect for Bajpayee. The 56-year-old veteran responds by saying he is amazed by the Pataal Lok star's talent.

"I saw Paatal Lok and I can talk about every scene. I’ve talked with him in detail about it. I like Jaideep’s work a lot, especially in Paatal Lok, that's why I talk about Paatal Lok again and again. He has done such a good job,” Bajpayee told PTI in an interview along with Ahlawat and the rest of the The Family Man 3 team.

Ahlawat, in turn, said he has seen almost all of Bajpayee's films. “There is a lot of great work that he has done. If you look at his every performance then that in itself will become a master class for many actors, I’m saying this very genuinely..."

The two actors first met on the sets of Chittagong before they went on to work in Wasseypur, a two-part revenge saga by Anurag Kashyap.

The two stars recall with amusement an event for Bajpayee's film Jugnuma in which Kashyap, Ahlawat and co-actor Vijay Varma touched Bajpayee's feet. The moment quickly became viral on social media.

Bajpayee said he was embarrassed and blamed Kashyap for instigating others.

"But they were having fun. It went a little viral. Anurag Kashyap keeps doing such things, you all haven’t heard what was there in the video, I had abused him a lot,” he laughed.

Ahlawat, however, loved it.

"It just happened... It was a moment for all of us and we thought, Pakad lo.” Asked whether their relationship could be defined as a guru-shishya one, Bajpayee said "no".

“It is not guru-shishya. That is a big thing. Those who have taught Jaideep in FTII, and have introduced him to acting, are his gurus. But we learn a lot from each other’s work, that's about it. There is nothing more to it. Let's not glorify it that much,” Bajpayee said.

The actor added that he was the one to recommend Ahlawat for the role of Shahid Khan, his onscreen father in Wasseypur.

“We were discussing who will play Shahid Khan... Anurag often seeks my advice for (casting of) the actors even though I don't act in his films. I told him that I have done Chittagong and Jaideep is a very talented guy, his personality is very good. He said, ‘Okay, you send him to me’. He asked, ‘He should look like your father’. I said, ‘He will look like my father’. I’m so happy that I recommended three people (actors) and they all got the job (in Gangs of Wasseypur), Jaideep got a job, Jameel (Khan) and Raj (Rajkummar Rao), so everyone got a job,” Bajpayee recalled.

Thirteen years later comes The Family Man 3, the third instalment of the hit show that features Bajpayee as intelligence officer Srikant Tiwari. Ahlawat was offered the role of the antagonist Rukma alongside Nimrat Kaur's Meera by creators Raj Nidimoru & Krishna DK and was immediately enthused by the prospect.

“…I was only thinking, ‘I hope that the day he is asking me to shoot, I’m not doing anything around same time. But my timeline matched, and I did not ask anything. In the beginning, I did not ask how many scenes are there with sir (Bajpayee), I was like, ‘Somewhere, we will meet sometime or the other (on the show)’.”

He said he is hoping the new season will strike a chord with the audiences just as the first two did.

According to Bajpayee, he is asked only one question by fans -- when will the third season be released.

"Apart from this, nothing else. Some will say, ‘You have done a very good job, sir. But, when is ‘The Family Man’ coming?’ I was coming from Hyderabad and the air hostesses, they all asked for photographs. I went there, got myself photographed and then suddenly all of them unanimously asked me, ‘Sir, when will ‘The Family Man’ come?’ I said, ‘I’m going for its promotion and it will come out’." Bajpayee added that he has for the first time cracked a new segment—youngsters.

"After season one, I was at the airport, and an 18-year-old came to me and said, ‘Uncle, can I get a selfie?’. I said, ‘I don't take selfies. Can we take a photo instead?’ He said, ‘Yes sir’. We asked someone to take the photo. Then he asked me, ‘Can I have your autograph’, I said ‘Okay’. Then he said, ‘Uncle you are the best’, and that compliment coming from that young boy had never happened to me (before).

"The Family Man is the one which started it for me. Children between the ages of 7 to 13 years were never my audience but now they have seen so many of my movies on OTT because of The Family Man."

The Family Man 3, which has Bajpayee's character as the father of two precocious children, also brings back actors Sharib Hashmi, Priyamani, Ashlesha Thakur, Vedant Sinha, Shreya Dhanwanthary and Gul Panag. It will premiere on Prime Video on November 21.