Manoj Joshi was offered Maan Rahe Tera Pitaah

Theatre, television and film actor Manoj Joshi was first offered the role of the ‘deranged Pitaah’ in Sony’s Maan Rahe Tera Pitaah. But he turned it down, since he “was busy with Priyadarshan’s film Khatta Meetha with Akshay Kumar.” He says, “The role is very good and I am happy Pramod Moutho is doing it. He is a wonderful actor and the story ahead is very good. The setting and the backdrop of Chattisgarh is also a first on television. Better than those chalky sets, fighting women and men having affairs! It isn’t our culture; family values are and Maan Rahe depicts those,” says the actor, earlier seen as Rasiklal, the middle class father in Yeh Meri Life Hai on Sony. Joshi says there is no question of him leaving television altogether. “I can never go away from it completely. It’s just that if I am getting good films, I can’t find time to do a TV show. But yes if there is time, there is no way I will turn down a role because it is on TV!” Joshi has just wrapped up Khatta Meetha “in which I have a good, negative role; the film is on road mafia; then there is a film on the Bhopal gas tragedy. It’s a Bollywood meets Hollywood kind of film with Martin Sheen, Rajpal Yadav and Kal Penn and is directed by Ravi Kumar who is based in London. I play Dr Chandra who treated the gas affected patients. The film is hard hitting and has turned out well. Then there is SRK or Shivaji Rao Khote, a Warner production and it stars me with Vinay Pathak and Rituparna Sen. There is also Anees Bazmi’s next.”