Actor Manoj Bajpayee feels that Hindi is being sidelined not just in the film industry but in society as well. And he is trying to counter this by making it a rule to accept scripts only in Devanagari.

Ask him why he thinks that in the grand scheme of things, separate from the debate between Hindi and regional languages, and Bajpayee explains, “It’s not the fault of the entertainment industry. I feel that everyone likes to send their children to an English-medium school, whether they are good, bad, or average. We want our children to learn to speak English first. And then, if there is time and energy, they can go ahead and learn some other language. So, actually, we are failing as parents.”

“We are failing as teachers, too, to inculcate a passion for our own language,” the Padma Shri recipient, who was recently in the Capital for a book launch, further adds. 

The 47-year-old asserts that the entertainment industry “is no different from society”. “Everyone who is coming into the industry, I would say 90-95% of them, only write in English. It’s an unfortunate thing,” he shares. However, Bajpayee insists to “read scripts in Devanagari only”. 

“There are very few of us who demand that our scripts be written in Devanagari. I refuse to read anything else. If it is written in English, it is returned back to them. It’s not like I don’t know English. I know the language, but as artistes, we are expressing or we need to express ourselves in Hindi (on screen), so it should be in our knowledge of writing, reading and speaking. In fact, reading [scripts] in Hindi should definitely be there,” concludes the National Award-winning actor, who is noted for his performances in projects such as Satya (1998), Shool (1999), Gangs Of Wasseypur and The Family Man.