People don't put me in the rat race but they still cast me in their films. They look at me keeping the box office aside - they give me great respect.”

“The regard and respect, which I've got in these six years is quite overwhelming, rare and unusual. An actor getting this kind of respect without regard for the box office is not known in this industry. I would say it is amazing. I feel comfortable and blessed here. I can go ahead and experiment and people still forgive me - they allow me to experiment and take risks-that's what I always wanted.” (Also read: Ramu is too big for me to fight with him: Manoj Bajpai)

He's completed ten years in the industry and five post-Satya. Satya becomes that milestone in his career that an actor could talk about all his life, for it got him out of relative anonymity and brought him to the forefront. Recently, Pinjar fetched him more credit though his LoC fell at the box office. He enumerates his forthcoming films – Inteqam: The Perfect Game and a couple more films with Dharmesh Darshan and Makrand Deshpande. (Read: I am okay with kissing scenes, says Manoj)

Pinjar set in the partition era was the story of a character who repents all his life for doing something bad. (Read: Feels good to be friends with SRK, says Manoj)

In LoC, he played Sipahi Yogendrasingh Yadav, who gets a Paramveer Chakra after being struck by 15 bullets in his stomach.

Manoj is now doing a Pankuj Parasher thriller. He plays a stylish cop in the film. He says, "because it's stylish, it's not so real. There are two women with me and the acting responsibility is on their shoulders. In this film, I just wear good clothes and investigate a case. The girls are Isha Koppikar and Nethra Raghuraman. In Makrand Deshpande's film I play a character whose mental age is about ten year old. It's a surrealistic kind of a film. Dharmesh Darshan's film is a commercial-social film in which I enter in the interval. I'm playing Anil Kapoor's friend, who supports him.”

What sets Manoj apart from the usual run of actors is his delight in the roles he does. Not for him the dissatisfaction that comes from creativity. He says: "I'm excited about all these films because as it is I'm very finicky about what I do and all these roles are very different from each other and I'm enjoying my romance with different characters."

“In LoC the responsibilities were shared so it's like back seat driving for me and I'm enjoying it. This is a challenge because I've been in the front seat for a long time and now I wanted to try it this way and still get noticed. These projects are very interesting and exciting and I didn't want them to go to somebody else.”

He adds: “At least people went to the theatre to see films and they somewhere disproved the fact that they were not really interested in watching films. They are interested provided you give them something interesting."

Manoj Bajpai’s films - Hanslal Mehta's Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Rakesh Mehra's Aks, Shyam Benegal's Zubeida and Ghaath with Akashdeep co-starring Tabu, were all feathers in his creative cap. Says he: “Working with Bachchan in Aks was like a dream coming true for me.” Shyam Benegal and Akashdeep would be two diagonally opposite filmmakers with whom Bajpai has worked and he says, 'Benegal is from a different school of filmmaking, and he's a pioneer. So one is there as his student. You follow exactly what he's telling you.”

“Working with Benegal and Ram Gopal Verma is very different. Both of them belong to different schools of cinema. With Benegal you work on your role thoroughly and I'm an actor who leaves certain things for the camera also. But with him it's like 'go prepared completely - work on the complete history of the times and then approach the role. I learned a lot from him and I think he was happy with my work. First of all, when he offered me the role of a prince, I was doubtful whether I was suited for the role. But he was certain I was just right for the role and I just delivered."

“No approach can be termed better or worse because each filmmaker has his own perception and approach. What one learns is that every approach comes in handy when you have different things to do. Your approach should change and working with different people allows your own approach to broaden. Actors should imbibe different approaches. That's why I'm so happy to work with all kinds of directors."

That's Manoj Bajpai - an actor who grows with every role he does and revels in the opportunity that each role offers him.