When Yash Chopra told Manoj Bajpayee, 'I don’t make films for an actor like you, so...' while offering Veer-Zaara

It was a fantastic chance for Manoj Bajpayee to "catch up" with Shah Rukh Khan, whom he had known for years, and to also be on a Yash Chopra set and witness the master himself when he played a minor part in a major mainstream role in the 2004 release Veer Zaara.

In the cross-border love story Veer Zaara, Shah Rukh portrayed an Indian Air Force officer who fell in love with Preity Zinta, a Pakistani politician's daughter. In a cameo appearance, Manoj Bajpayee appeared in the Yash Chopra film.

When questioned about working with Shah Rukh in Veer Zaara in an interview with Humans of Bombay, Bajpayee stated he did the love drama for Yash Chopra after the director gave him the unique part.

The actor stated that no offense was intended towards Shah Rukh, but Yash Chopra phoned him and asked him to join in this movie. He was a huge fan of Manoj's performance in Pinjar and was astounded by it when he saw it in Delhi with Lal Krishna Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The late filmmaker had the idea to give him this role at that point.

Manoj revealed that he just spent four or five days there; it was a guest appearance. Yash Chopra treated him equally to everyone else on set. The actor received such a kind welcome into the Veer Zaara family from the filmmaker, and he thoroughly loved working with him.

Shah Rukh and Manoj go back to their Delhi days when they performed in theatre together, and the latter claimed that the movie also gave him a chance to rekindle his relationship with the superstar.

Shah Rukh is someone he has known for a very long time from his time in Delhi, so it was also an opportunity to catch up. They belong to two separate categories of movies and filmmaking since they don't interact. It was an opportunity to catch up with him and experience Yash Chopra's sets, who had been such an amazing and prosperous mainstream filmmaker for so many years. They were raised on his movies!

The legendary filmmaker and Manoj used to talk for hours on end. He was quite explicit when he said that he doesn't produce films for an actor like him, so he doesn't think he would have anything else in the future. Nevertheless, this is really nice, and it will be amazing if Manoj agrees to do it. The actor added that Yash Chopra was such a modest man.