Manoj Bajpayee: If creative liberty must be sacrificed, so be it

Manoj Bajpayee has built a career on not softening his words, and his latest comments about the Gajab Raat title controversy are no exception. The actor has criticised the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for what he sees as a convenient retreat from creative freedom after the outrage over the film’s original title, Ghuskhor Pandat.

CBFC’s new stance, through Bajpayee’s eyes

The title row prompted the CBFC to issue an advisory: no title or release date will be treated as final until the board has approved it. For Bajpayee, the move is less about protecting audiences and more about giving the board an escape hatch. He told SCREEN that the CBFC is ‘going to behave according to a few popular choices’ because the current mood assumes anyone can be offended by anything.

His reading is blunt: if everyone can be upset, the board can keep every decision provisional. ‘That is why they have made things temporary. It is very convenient,’ he said. ‘And if a creative person’s needs have to be sacrificed, then so be it. If creative liberty needs to be sacrificed, then so be it, because they have to be all right in the eyes of their own people.’

Outrage arrived before the first frame

Bajpayee is not only upset with the regulator. He pointed out that the backlash around the title built up before anyone had seen a single scene. ‘We had the entire outcry around Gajab Raat’s title without anyone even seeing a frame of the film,’ he said. He added that the people who directed threats at him and his family are unlikely to feel sorry.

Still, he sees the film’s success as the best rebuttal. ‘I am so happy that the film’s success is a fitting answer to everyone.’

Why this matters for Hindi film fans

This is bigger than one film. If titles and release dates stay provisional, producers can be left waiting on a regulator that is itself waiting on public sentiment. That uncertainty can shape which stories get told, how they are named, and how quickly they reach screens. Bajpayee is making a larger argument: a board that prizes being all right in the eyes of its own people may end up treating a filmmaker’s freedom as an acceptable cost.

The role’s moral clarity

He also spoke about what drew him to the character he plays in Gajab Raat. The man faces no real moral struggle. He feels a short-lived tug of conscience and clings to it only so he can face himself in the mirror. He never claims he will turn over a new leaf by morning. That straightforward nature is what made the part attractive.

• The CBFC advisory makes title and release-date approvals provisional until board sign-off.
• Bajpayee says the board is following popular choices and treating creative liberty as expendable.
• Online outrage over the original title began before anyone saw the film, he adds.
• He calls Gajab Raat’s success the fitting answer to the backlash.

Source: The Times of India