Manoj Bajpayee has accused Bollywood of carrying a “bad reputation and bad karma” for the way it treats talented actors, saying the industry reduces them to nothing on the set by stereotyping them in roles and in their treatment.
He made the remarks in an interview with Zoom while promoting his Netflix film “Gajab Raat”, according to a report in The Indian Express published on October 23, 2026. Manoj Bajpayee said Bollywood has a long habit of demolishing gifted performers by fitting them into narrow moulds and then leaving them with nothing.
“Many of the people went away, withered away without any recognition,” Bajpayee said, pointing to actors whose careers faded even though their talent deserved better. He blamed the industry’s casting habits and the treatment meted out to performers on set for the loss.
The language was strong, and Bajpayee did not dress it up. Bollywood, in his account, takes performers with real ability and grinds them down until nothing of the original talent is left, all because the roles on offer never change.
Manoj Bajpayee on Bollywood stereotyping
Bajpayee’s central charge is that Bollywood decides what an actor can do and then refuses to look past that judgment. Once a performer is slotted into a type, the parts on offer stop testing them and shrink into repetitions of the same performance.
He said the stereotyping works in two ways: in the roles that get written and in the treatment on the set. Manoj Bajpayee argued that actors are hired for a fixed image and then dealt with as that image, rather than as performers with a wider range.
The interview took place during the promotions of “Gajab Raat”, which premiered on Netflix on October 23, 2026. The film was earlier titled “Ghooskhor Pandat”. Its cast includes Nushrratt Bharuccha, Saqib Saleem, Akshay Oberoi, Divya Dutta, Kiku Sharda and Shraddha Das.
Manoj Bajpayee says only 25 percent of his talent is used
Turning the criticism on his own career, Bajpayee said Bollywood has barely tapped what he can do. “I have always maintained that only 25 percent of my acting abilities have been used; there’s a lot,” he said.
The comment is a blunt self-assessment from an actor with decades of work behind him. Manoj Bajpayee suggested the remaining three quarters of his range stay unexplored because the parts that reach him rarely ask for anything new.
His point stretched beyond his own career. The same machinery that limited his options, Manoj Bajpayee argued, has ended the careers of many others who never got a second look.
What Divya Dutta said about actor tags
Co-star Divya Dutta backed the argument, taking aim at the labels the industry hands out. She said she “detests” the supporting actor and character actor tags, calling them a shortcut used when casting circles cannot place an actor in a bracket.
Dutta’s remark fits Bajpayee’s larger claim. When a performer does not fit a ready category, she suggested, the industry files them under a tag instead of writing parts suited to what they can do.
The two actors were speaking together while promoting “Gajab Raat”. Dutta appears in the Netflix film’s ensemble alongside Bharuccha, Saleem, Oberoi, Sharda and Das, with Bajpayee leading the cast.
Manoj Bajpayee credits OTT platforms with fairer chances
Both actors said the rise of OTT platforms has improved matters. The streaming boom, they said, has made casting fairer and given performers in secondary roles better chances than the theatrical circuit offered.
With more stories in production and longer formats giving writers room, actors who once waited for a single break now find steadier work. Manoj Bajpayee indicated the platforms have widened the field for performers who were earlier pushed to the margins.
“Gajab Raat” is itself part of that shift, releasing straight to Netflix on October 23, 2026. Bajpayee leads the ensemble cast, and the remarks reported by The Indian Express on October 23, 2026 came during the film’s promotional run.