Manoj Bajpayee Talks International Film Festival of India, ZEE5 Global Title ‘Despatch’

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee‘s latest film, “Despatch,” directed by Kanu Behl, played at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa and is set to stream on ZEE5 Global.

In “Despatch,” Bajpayee plays Joy, a seasoned crime editor at a Mumbai tabloid who becomes entangled in a dangerous investigation while struggling to maintain his relevance in the digital age.

As he pursues a story involving organized crime, political corruption and corporate takeovers, Joy’s professional ambitions collide with his complex personal life, leading to dangerous consequences. “Though it’s undercurrent is of a thriller, the way [Behl] has treated it is quite fascinating,” Bajpayee says. “People are finding the whole approach of not really flowing with the events and focusing rather on those events actually inside the human being, inside that character, and in the darkness of his own personality, which is far scarier than the events which are unfolding.” Despite warnings about Behl’s reputation as a challenging director, Bajpayee was drawn to both the script and the opportunity to work with the filmmaker. “Once I knew that the script is good, I wanted to just collaborate because everybody scared me about Kanu Behl that he is, is a very difficult director.

He can actually break you… and the more people told me about, about the stories from the set, the more determined I became to work in this film because I really wanted to experience his approach, experience, how he is having this reputation.