‘Family Man’ actor Manoj Bajpayee celebrated the completion of six years of his critically acclaimed film, ‘Aligarh’, on Saturday.
The actor took to Instagram to share a poster of the film and posted stories of it completing 6 years. The film also had Rajkummar Rao in the lead role with him. Earlier, Apurva Asrani, who wrote the story and screenplay of the film, posted a long message on Instagram to celebrate 6 years of the film.
His post read, “Today marks 6 years since #Aligarh released and I’ve put together a bunch of pictures that marks it’s beautiful journey. This film is special, not just because it was my full fledged writing debut, but also because it came at a time when being gay was a criminal offense and the film became a statement of sorts.
It was also during the promotions of the film, that i came out of the closet on national television (with @barkha.dutt-pic attached).” The post continued, “Hugest gratitude to @hansalmehta for making this film and for giving me the opportunity to write it.
To @erosnow for backing this little film and making it so big. To @rajkummar_rao for adding much heft to the project by playing Deepu Sebastian with such sincerity. To @ancientfeline for sparking the idea to tell this story and for bringing impeccable research and support to the writing process.
And finally, to @bajpayee.manoj for playing Professor Siras with so much love, empathy and honesty. I saw the film again two days ago, and not only is he a masterclass in acting, each viewing of the film unravels different layers of his performance.
Cheers to the entire team of Aligarh for giving their all. #6YearsOfAligarh #manojbajpayee #rajkummarrao #hansalmehta #apurvaasrani.” He also added the Rainbow flag, representative of the LGBTQ community at the end of the caption.
Manoj had reacted to the post by writing, “You write so well Appu!! Some memories never fade away. making of Aligarh is such a memorable part of our life & career!! Love.” He added a heart emoji to it.
‘Aligarh’ was the sensitive story of a professor of Marathi and the head of the Classical Modern Indian Languages Faculty at the famed Aligarh Muslim University, who gets suspended on grounds of morality.
He is contacted by a journalist (Rajkummar) who is sympathetic to him, and his case is taken up in court. The film won rave reviews and fetched many awards for Manoj, Apurva and the director of the film, Hansal Mehta.