To be an achiever, one has to be a dreamer. To be a dreamer, one has to have courage. This is because dreams have the tendency of shattering at the wrong places and at wrong times. But anyone who has become an achiever had the courage to dream. One person who fits in the description is Manoj Bajpai who had the determination to make his dreams come true no matter how many sacrifices he had to make.

Manoj Bajpai, a passionate lover of theatre shifted his base to Mumbai after he was offered a miniscule role in Shekhar Kapoor's "Bandit Queen". A small town guy, he hails from a village called Bilwa in Bihar. But even after his first film, Manoj was not that recognized actor as far as the audiences were concerned. Things were yet to happen for him. Pooja Bhatt spotted him for her film "Tamanna" where again he went unnoticed. To keep himself busy as an actor, he kept doing serials like "Badalte Rishtey" and "Zameen Aasman" where he enchanted the Tele audiences. The intensity in his acting kept everyone wondering about this brown-black eyed man.

But it was Manoj's desire to make things happen that got him the breath-taking performance in Ram Gopal Verma's "Satya". He gave an inspiring performance as Bhikubhai and even went away with the Filmfare Critics Award. It seems he is obsessed with the idea of acting because of his very next movie "Kaun" opposite Urmila Matondkar was another feast for the eyes. He came out absolutely fantastic in the film and no one should be surprised if he drives away with some more awards. His dream role in the film "Shool" with material girl Raveena Tandon did not have a dream run at the box office. This does not mean that he was bad actor or something. His performance as the tough cop a la Amitabh Bachchan style in "Zanjeer" received many accolades for him. He became a national heart throb. Manoj's venture "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar", a black comedy, directed by debutant director Hansal Mehta was expected to do wonders for this actor. Pitted against Tabu, this film had a lot of audience expectations but could not garner the same response. Another of his films which will be releasing soon is Akashdeep's "Ghaath" again with Tabu. Here again, Manoj plays a hardcore police inspector, out to roughen some of the goons in the society.