Manoj Bajpayee had thought 2016 would be his career-best year. Apart from two short films, 'Taandav' and 'Kriti', there were two other releases — 'Aligarh' and 'Traffic'. Then there's the upcoming 'Budhia Singh – Born To Run', apart from 'Missing' and 'Saat Uchakkey', also in the pipeline. It hasn't been a smooth ride, though. 'Aligarh' battled censor issues, 'Traffic' director, Rajesh Pillai, passed away just before the film hit theatres and 'Kriti' was embroiled in a copyright row. More controversy was in store for Manoj whose alleged remark referring to Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani as a "spent force" led the latter to say that he was "waiting for Manoj's career to take off." We caught up with the actor, who is now in the midst of promoting 'Budhia Singh – Born To Run'. Excerpts from the chat:

Manoj Bajpayee