18 years of 1971: Manoj Bajpayee on how the film’s National Award triumph revived director Amrit Sagar, “Somehow, it put life into him”

Manoj Bajpayee, speaking exclusively on the eighteen anniversary of his film 1971, glows with pride. “1971 is very close to my heart, also because we've put in so much of hard work and conviction into it. While, you know, there was nothing that was going our way. And every day, shooting was so difficult in Himachal because of the weather condition. Shooting got delayed and we kept on holding up in Manali because of the unpredictable weather. The shoot kept on getting delayed. The climax went through, you know, its own difficulty. So many accidents, so many mishaps. We almost lost our lives,” he said.

Manoj praises the director for the impressive reputation of this little-big film. “It was only the conviction of the director Amrit Sagar and the entire cast and crew that the film got complete,” said the veteran actor. “During the private screening, everyone went gaga about the film, everyone appreciated and everyone, you know, predicted a great future for the film. I don't know whose fault it was that the film didn't get the right publicity and people didn't even come to know when the film came and when it was running and when it was gone. That broke the heart of everyone. But mostly, Amrit Sagar was completely affected by it when he completely lost all the courage, all the all the passion suddenly, you know, somewhere he felt so disheartened.”

Manoj told a story on how 1971 was entered for the National Film awards at the last minute. “One fine day I was told by some government person that, you know, there is a last date of submission of your film for the National Award. And I called up Amrit Sagar. He lost complete belief in the film and in himself after the debacle of 1971 at the box office. And he was not ready to send the film to National Awards because somewhere he felt that he didn’t deserve it or somewhere he felt that it didn't stand a chance,” he said.

“But I had complete, complete belief in both my director and the film,” said Manoj. “Somehow, I forced him to send the film for the submission and his office made sure that it reached Delhi in time. Then we forgot about it. And one morning someone called me and said that please watch the news. 1971 has got two National Awards. I was jumping with joy. I called up Amrit Sagar to tell him the good news. He thought I was playing a prank on him. He started crying and telling, ‘Don't do this to me. Don't make fun of me. I'm completely in a shit place. I'm not in the right place, you know, mentally. I lost all my passion and conviction after this film's debacle. Don't, don't pull a prank on me. I'm not in that state of mind.’”

Manoj added, “And I said, ‘Please watch the news. It's all there, you know, it's all there’. And then he switched on the TV hesitatingly with a complete disbelief. And he called me up and he was actually in tears. He was crying when he was talking to me. So, the poetic justice that this film got, though it was quite late, but somewhere, you know, it instilled that belief in everyone, in my director who lost all the passion, all the belief, all the conviction in himself and somehow, you know, put life into him. And for that, I will always be grateful to God.”

1971 became a huge hit in the digital platform. Recalled Manoj, “When Corona happened, Amrit Sagar called me up and I was held up in in Uttarakhand. He said that we are going to put it the film on our YouTube channel. I said, ‘Okay, so send me the creative, I'll put it on social media’. And then, it was the first blockbuster on digital media. So, this film, 1971, kept on gaining momentum once the Corona and lockdown was announced. In the end, all I would like to say is that whatever good that you make or create, somehow, somewhere, you know, sometime, it gets its own due. And I really thank God for that.”

Also Read: 9 years of Aligarh: Manoj Bajpayee recalls, “The film impacted the young minds and the court rulings”

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