Weekend Exclusive | Manoj Tiwari: Unplugged and unleashed!

Manoj Tiwari is a versatile singer, actor, television presenter and music director. He hails from Bihar and acts in the Bhojpuri genre of the Indian film industry. He is reported to be one of the leading male star of that genre. Prior to his involvement in cinema he has spent ten years as a singer and still continues to record music and release new albums. He also holds a keen interest in cricket and politics.

 

Adgully caught up with Manoj Tiwari, in an interesting conversation about Bollywood and the Bhojpuri film industry to gain  insight into his career and life. Following are some of the excerpts from the interview:

 

According to Manoj Tiwari, there is absolutely no comparison between Bhojpuri and Bollywood cinema, both are very different even though they are movie hubs from same country. The biggest difference he mentioned was that of the budget. Nowadays investment in Bollywood movies start from 6 crores and some even go up to 100 crores, whereas Bhojpuri movies start from just 6-8 lacs and can go upto a maximum of 1-1.5 crores. In terms of investment too both are very distinct, but there is no doubt that when it comes to acting much is delivered in  the Bhojpuri movies for their viewers. It is an  integral and very  much a part of their own land which is definitely not provided to them by  Bollywood movies, be it the emotions or their relativity towards their own land.

 

 He feels that there is no doubt that the future of Bhojpuri movies is very bright .He says “The current avatar of Bhojpuri movies that we are seeing is just hardly 15% of it and we are trying to take this graph to 40%, and if this becomes possible then I guess Bhojpuri movies may prove to be a tough competitor to Bollywood movies.”

 

He also talks  about many of the Tamil or Telugu movies which have made it big in  Bollywood by their remakes and have shown great acceptance by the audience. In such a  scenario where do the Bhojpuri movies stand and would it ever reach to that fame in Bollywood and gain such popularity. To this Manoj says, “It has not been done yet but yes it is possible. There are few films which  have done  good business like Rowdy Rathore, Dabangg, Gajhini which were made with big budgets and big actors as well, but yes I cannot compare myself with Salmaan bhai, Akshay bhai , Shahrukh bhai or Amir bhai. They have their own aura, they have no competition, but I still think that the audience attracted by Bhojpuri movies must be less than  Bollywood movies but it is very minor difference and yes our tickets are always cheaper than the Bollywood movies. Whereas the ticket for a Bollywood movie costs around Rs.100-Rs.150, our tickets are  just Rs.8  which is bought by approximately 10,000 people. If those 10,000 people start buying the Rs.100 or Rs.150  tickets then we can definitely do  good business.”

 

Manoj Tiwari is known to be the Amitabh Bachchan of Bhojpuri cinemas.  His career as a actor happened  by chance. He emphasises to say  it is  not even by chance but his acting career happened  by force. He said, “When I became a singer people said why not go for acting. I denied it, but they still forced me to act. My first film became a golden jubilee movie and this led to people thinking of me as a good actor. So I became an actor.” Manoj thinks he can never reach the position of Amitabh Bachchan.  People may compare  him but he prefers to be called  Manoj Tiwari  of Bhojpuri movies. When asked about his priority with regards to  singing, acting and anchoring his preference is for anchoring.  He says, “I am a singer and when singing and anchoring come together it creates an altogether different aura around me and I love entertaining people by engaging with them and talking to them.”

 

Manoj is upset with the fact that a Bhojpuri movie lacks quality “This has  been the only  thing which we regret about our industry. Earlier we Bhojpuri actors used to do films just for money sake but it doesn't work now. There should be a class in the films now because of which our audience will  feel good and the film should be such that it should add a star to Bhojpuri cinema . We have started working on this and you will soon find a change in Bhojpuri cinema.” said Manoj.

 

Talking about his show ‘Azadi’ on Life ok, he put forward his personal thought regarding the freedom of our country.  He says “I am afraid to say that we call ourselves free Indians but the fact is that despite winning our independence and freedom years back, we are still slaves. No country is perfect but it is a sad state of affairs that in our country we have more corrupt people who just see their benefits and don't work for the grass root development of the  society. It is  sad that you can't point a finger to the face of any corrupt leader, and if you do so you will be suppressed. So I think we are still slaves in a way. But those who actually mean to do some good to the country have always been and will always keep fighting against these issues. We love our country and will keep doing good for our country and will try to give our children a better country and a better thought. I am thankful to Star network and Life ok channel to bring up such a show which enlightens our people about our nation and I salute this initiative and its my pleasure to be the part of it. I request all to watch this show.”