When Vidhu Vinod Chopra Bit Neha Bajpai’s Hand On Kareeb Set, Manoj Bajpai’s Stern Reaction Will Shock You

Manoj Bajpai recalls an incident from the filming of Kareeb when director Vidhu Vinod Chopra bit Neha Bajpai's hand to fix a scene.

By
Piyush Yadav
- January 9, 2025 | 12:59 PM IST
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Manoj Bajpai is one of the finest actors in Indian cinema. Known for projects such as Gangs of Wasseypur and The Family Man, Bajpai recently shared an incident from the early days of his wife, Neha Bajpai’s (formerly Shabana Raza) career. Neha is also a former actress who worked in movies such as Aatma and Acid Factory.

In the 1998 film Kareeb, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Neha, a newcomer at the time, found herself awkward during filming. According to Manoj, Neha was struggling with a particular scene, and out of frustration, Vidhu Vinod Chopra used an unconventional approach to get her attention.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra bit the hand of Neha Bajpai to make her remember the hand to use
Manoj Bajpai discussed a story from the film Kareeb in an interview with Mid-Day. During the filming of Kareeb, Neha Bajpai, still new to the film industry, was having difficulty with a particular scene in which she needed to raise her left hand for a song sequence. Despite several attempts, she struggled with remembering which hand to raise. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the film’s director, grew frustrated as the takes went on without resolution.

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He resorted to an unusual method to get her attention and correct the mistake: biting her hand to remind her of the right hand to raise. Although this action might seem surprising, Neha, being relatively new to the industry, didn’t interpret it as inappropriate. At that time, she believed such behavior was part of the “mad genius” persona that filmmakers sometimes exhibited to achieve their vision. Speaking of Manoj, he had a rather stern reply to this, saying, “Nobody can do this with me.”

In a previous interview with Filmfare, the actor Bobby Deol also discussed this incident. “For one scene, Neha had to come down the mountain and give me her left hand. But she kept getting confused. When she couldn’t get this right after repeated takes, Vidhu asked her to bite her right hand. She did, but she still got it wrong in the next take. After 20 takes, Vidhu lost his cool. And you know what he did? He bit her right hand. I was too shocked to react,” Bobby Deol revealed.

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