Pankaj Tripathi: “While I was searching for roles earlier, now good roles are searching for me as actor”

By Jyothi Venkatesh

The versatile in-demand actor Pankaj Tripathi has become friendlier of late. At the promotional interactions for his film OMG2, I was astonished to find the elusive Pankaj to be more approachable. Though it was my first ever interview with the actor, and I have met him off and on during the film-based events earlier, the moment he spotted me, he hugged me and floored me with his enigmatic style.

We set the ball rolling by talking about his role in the film OMG 2. “It is a very different role of a staunch devotee that I am playing in the film. In the earlier version, Paresh Rawal, who is the Chairman of NSD now, played the role of an atheist whereas in this film I play the role of a well-read guy who believes in God. I, as a student of Cinema, liked the way the script was written when it was narrated to me, and read it for 14 days. Though Umesh Shukla had directed OMG earlier, Amit Rai who had directed ‘Road To Sangam’ is the writer-director of OMG 2 and I have full trust in him. In any case, you work with a director if you trust him wholeheartedly.”

Pankaj continued. “The format of the storytelling is the same though the subjects of OMG and OMG 2 are completely different. OMG 2 is more of a courtroom drama. Though the story is different, the structure as well as the screenplay of OMG2 is different. The film sets out to address sensitively the issues including sex education that students today face in society. Today, even kids have their own smartphones in their palms and they also see and read whatever we elders see or read and that is a very dangerous trend in society today. I should know because I am the father of a seventeen-year-old daughter and my father was a pandit.”

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Pankaj confesses that ever since he made his debut as an actor with Farhan Akhtar’s Lakshya seventeen years ago, he has grown a lot as an actor but he is not able to fathom to what extent. The main difference between him earlier as an actor and now is that while he was searching for roles earlier, now the roles are searching for him. The reason for this, he attributes to the emerging breed of writers today. He feels that the writers are changing today and as a result, there are various layers in a script today compared to what it used to be earlier.”

Pankaj Tripathi and journalist Jyothi Venkatesh

Pankaj frankly agrees that a time has come when he feels that he is really tired of acting at a frenetic pace as an actor today. “You just cannot be good at what you are doing if you do it continuously 24/7 for 365 days nonstop. It is necessary that you stop and pause and ponder. I realized that I was stamped with the same stereo-typed image as an actor because I had started looking similar in role after role, especially after Criminal Justice and Mirzapur when I was inundated with the role of a gangster in film after film.”

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Now Pankaj has made amends and after working with an actor like Akshay Kumar in OMG2, he makes it a point to ask for at least a day off in a week and devote himself to his family, as Akshay does. Also, he confesses that he has also changed his working style by catching an entirely different ‘sur’ as far as acting is concerned.

Pankaj Tripathi confesses that his acting ka dukaan is right now in full swing but he is very inclined towards taking up direction too at the right time. Pankaj Tripathi signs off the interview by stating that frankly as an actor though he wishes all his films to do well, he does not lose his sleep by pondering over how a particular film of his works at the box office and when it is released because he is practical enough to feel that it is actually then look-out of the producers of his films and not his, especially because he feels that he is not in a position to predict the outcome of the fate of his films. Wow! Take a bow Pankajbhai!