Rajpal Yadav recalled that when he landed in Bihar to shoot for School, the crew was surprised when the crowd that had gathered to watch the filming began screaming his name.
Rajpal Yadav might have gotten a slow start in the movies, but in the late 1990s, the actor experienced his first brush with stardom when he played the lead role in Prakash Jha’s Doordarshan show Mungeri Ke Bhai Naurangilal. The show originated as a sequel to Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne and was a big hit across the country, especially in towns where satellite television was still the dominant medium. It was during this time that the actor was cast for a one-scene role in the 1999 film School, and landed up in Bihar’s Bettiah with Manoj Bajpayee and Raveena Tandon
Rajpal recalled that a crowd of five lakh people gathered to watch the filming, and police from 15 stations were deployed for security purposes. Manoj’s Bhikhu Mhatre from the film Satya had become hugely popular at the time, and Raveena was already a star, so the crowd went berserk when they saw the two stars. But to everyone’s surprise, the crowd started shouting for ‘Naurangi’ as soon as they spotted Rajpal. He shared with Bollywood Hungama, “The moment I got down, everyone shouted ‘Naurangi’. The unit people were asking ‘Who is Naurangi? The crowd is shouting for Naurangi.’ Manoj bhai told everyone ‘He is Naurangi’.”
