I'm not tempted to do commercial films: Manoj Bajpayee

Known for his portrayal of realistic characters in hard-hitting films, National Award winning actor Manoj Bajpayee says he only does commercial films when it is a matter of maintaining a relationship. Otherwise, he is not tempted to do 'masala' entertainers.

Nevertheless, he doesn't mind watching such movies.

Asked how he balances working in both commercial and parallel cinema, Manoj says, "Commercial films happened not by choice, but by accident. Satya became hugely successful and many more films, though they were middle-of-the-road or independent in nature, became successful, and that has given the market some kind of a reason to have me in those commercial films."

But would he like to star in an out-and-out entertainer? "I don't think so. I don't mind watching them. Featuring in them is something which doesn't occur to me so frequently," Manoj says.

The actor praised filmmakers such as Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkummar Hirani and Neeraj Pandey for their body of work. "Theirs are the commercial films I feel I might be comfortable doing. Other than that, people I admire from that area are people who balance their filmmaking or script-writing well, like Neeraj Pandey. That, for me, is a definition of a mainstream cinema that I am very comfortable with being part of."