Manoj Bajpayee recently revealed details about his wife Shabana Raza’s journey in Bollywood, her abrupt disappearance from the industry, and a shocking incident involving filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Shabana, known professionally as Neha Bajpai, was a promising actress in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She debuted with the 1998 film Kareeb alongside Bobby Deol and worked in notable films like Fiza with Hrithik Roshan, Pyaar Ki Jeet with Ajay Devgn, and the Tamil film Alli Thandha Vaanam with Prabhu Deva.
Despite her talent, her acting career abruptly stopped after the 2009 film Acid Factory. In a recent interview with Mid-Day, Manoj Bajpayee shed light on why his wife stopped appearing in films.
“She didn’t quit films; she stopped getting work for some reason. Too many politics here and there. She is also an outsider and didn’t have any mentor,” he said, hinting at the challenges faced by those without connections in the film industry.
Manoj also recalled a troubling incident during the making of Kareeb involving director Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Shabana, new to the industry and lacking formal film training, struggled with a particular scene.
“Because Shabana didn’t have any film training of that sort, in the song she was raising a different hand altogether. In the scene, she was supposed to raise her left hand, but she would end up raising her right hand,” Manoj shared.
The director, frustrated with the repeated mistakes, took an extreme step to ensure Shabana remembered her actions. “To make her raise the left hand without forgetting, Vidhu bit her there. Nobody can do this with me,” Manoj said, expressing his disapproval of such behavior.
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Shabana, unaware of industry norms at the time, didn’t realize that such actions were inappropriate. “Because she was so new, she didn’t know if the action was appropriate. She thought this is the way how filmmakers behave. She must have thought they are all mad geniuses, they are capable of doing anything they want,” Manoj explained.
The incident was also recalled by Shabana’s Kareeb co-star Bobby Deol in a 2001 interview with Filmfare. Bobby confirmed that Vidhu Vinod Chopra had given Shabana a tough time during the shoot.
“For one scene, Neha had to come down the mountain and give me her left hand. But she kept getting confused. When she couldn’t get this right after repeated takes, Vidhu asked her to bite her right hand. She did but she still got it wrong in the next take. After 20 takes, Vidhu lost his cool. And you know what he did? He bit her right hand. I was too shocked to react,” Bobby shared.
While Shabana’s debut film Kareeb failed at the box office, the incident continues to raise questions about acceptable behavior in the film industry and the challenges faced by newcomers, especially outsiders without a support system.
