Indian actor Pankaj Tripathi's unconventional journey in films and fame

Gulf News

Indian actor Pankaj Tripathi was born in the small village of Belsand in Bihar to farmer parents who remain blissfully unaware of his growing influence in Hindi cinema.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/from-bihar-to-bollywood-pankaj-tripathis-unconventional-journey-with-films-and-fame-1.1717675921307  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Indian #PankajTripathi

Transcript

00:00Hi, Mr. Pankaj Tripathi. Thank you so much for speaking to Gulf News. By the way, your

00:10movie on Zee5 Global, Atal Main Hoon, is quite interesting. These biopics have become the

00:16rage in Bollywood, is it? Is that the way to go?

00:19Yes, nowadays people are making them. They should be made. Biopic films are basically

00:27inspiring stories, which are very important for the inspiration of the young generation.

00:36Why did you decide to take up this role though? I mean, as a leader, did you identify with

00:41Atal? Did you think political ideology matched with yours?

00:47Not political ideology. He was one of my favourite politicians, favourite orator, favourite poet.

01:00His poetry was brilliant and I found it very inspiring. I will not give up, I will not

01:06give up. So, this was enough reason for me to take up his role. Initially, I was a little

01:15bit worried about whether I will be able to perform convincingly or not. But in my surroundings,

01:23director, producer, my friend, everyone said, no, no, you are the correct choice. So, I

01:30said, let's try.

01:32Pankaj Tripathi, they are right because you are the right choice because I feel Atal Bihari

01:37Vajpayee generally is a very benign guy, very soft-spoken. He speaks his mind but he says

01:44it in a very unthreatening manner. In your case also, you have a similar personality,

01:49I feel. Do you think that both of you look at cinema, he looks at politics the same way

01:55with a kind of not aggressive approach?

01:57Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am with you.

02:02In fact, journey-wise also, both of us are from rural India. We have a journey of ordinary people.

02:21What was the toughest part about playing him? You said you admired him as well.

02:27Toughest part was writing. In two hours,

02:41what incident you have to keep or what left.

02:47And another thing is mimicry or imitation. How much I have to mimic or imitate him.

02:52And only the political rally, I have imitated a little bit. Apart from political rallies,

03:02I have not imitated him. I have done it in a very normal way. But the Indian audience

03:09starts looking for similarities, that he used to do this hand like this, he used to do that.

03:16So, I am trying to be more focused on his inner thoughts.

03:20Inner Atalji, not outer Atalji.

03:25And also it shouldn't be like a caricature.

03:37And how did you choose your roles? I remember when you came to IFA Abu Dhabi,

03:41you had the biggest cheers more than Salman Khan and any other actor, I remember.

03:46I want to ask you, do people think of you as a common man's hero?

03:51Because I am a common man's hero.

03:54So, I come from a common world and in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, people from my village are construction workers,

04:02they go to work. They didn't come to IFA, because if the entry was free,

04:08you would have seen that there would have been two lakh people, only from my village.

04:12They all are making Gulf country, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, infrastructure, everything.

04:18Migration, the area I belong from Bihar is a migration hub.

04:28But yes, I am a common man and another important thing is relatability in performance also.

04:48Right. You know, at one point, the kind of movies you do, they were called as

04:58offbeat cinema. Now offbeat has become mainstream.

05:04Do you think you are responsible for it largely? Because you started late,

05:09but you got fame through offbeat movies, which is now okay.

05:13I think stories are more important than me and this is the symbol of an evolved audience.

05:23The audience has evolved, so they started liking this kind of stories.

05:27And of course, it is my small role that I was a part of those stories.

05:36I was a part of those stories. That's it.

05:39The audience has evolved. After the internet came,

05:46people watch movies from all over the world. People know what is happening in the cinema.

05:52So, the audience has also evolved a lot from that.

05:56Right. Would you ever consider doing like a Korean series or a Spanish series? Because on

06:01any platform, be it Zee5 Global or any other platform, there are other languages as well,

06:07so would you consider doing it or is language an issue with you?

06:13I have a language barrier and apart from language barrier, I am extremely busy in Hindi films,

06:21Hindi series. I have literally no time. So, I am not able to do live performance theater for many

06:30years and I am missing that theater, live performance. So,

06:37yes, of course, if I get a chance, I will definitely do it. But I am extremely busy in Hindi and

06:42language barrier is another important material because if I don't understand the language,

06:47I can't give my 100% in performance. But you need to tell me your Bihar to

06:54Bollywood journey, do you look at it and go like I've done a good job

06:58or do you look at it like, you know, I came, you know, I worked my time,

07:03it was all through hard work. How do you look at your journey?

07:06No, no, it's an inspiring journey for others and fruitful journey for me because

07:15it's really tough to making a Hindi film career. It's near about impossible.

07:30So, it can be inspiring for others and again, someone was asking me last night,

07:36I didn't think that much in my life. Basically, I am a happy person.

07:51No, I am happy in any roles. But luckily, a lot has happened.

07:57It's more than we expected. Of course, sincerity, hard work, talent, craft

08:05and changing timing, audience is also a contribution. OTT platforms make me big.

08:17Zee5 Global or other platforms, when they came to India, they made a talent like us big.

08:25But is that a good thing though? Do you think that OTT platforms have helped actors like y'all

08:32as well to get more? Yes, yes. Masala entertainers, Jawan Patel come every month.

08:40OTT has a big role to give platform and recognition to a lot of talent,

08:50not only me. Nowadays, every good actor is busy in Mumbai doing some web show or some OTT films.

09:04When TV actors and movie actors, there was a demarcation. But between web CD actors and

09:12movie actors, there's not much difference. People are okay with it. Do you think that is also an

09:16important thing? There is no discrimination. Because the actors who work on OTT are genuinely

09:23talented. Without talent, you can't survive on OTT. The easier the audience enters, the easier

09:33they exit. Because you are in their pocket. It's not on your screen. Even if they exit,

09:43the box office counts. And the platform knows how many people have exited in how many minutes.

09:50So the easier it is to enter OTT, the easier it is to exit. So without talent,

09:54without storytelling, you can't hold here. That is so cool. Pankaj Tripathi,

10:00what's your process like? I want to know like every role you do, I feel that's you.

10:06And then I know I see you in another role, like say Sacred Game, then I'm like you could be that

10:11also. So are you a method actor? What do you do? Like what's your process?

10:16I'm trying to be believable.

10:23And without much changes.

10:42I would have been like Atal ji if I was a politician.

10:46Literally. Really?

10:47Yes. Because his opponents also respected Atal ji.

10:54Right. That's true.

10:56So it's difficult in politics these days. But that was with Atal ji. Every party, every political

11:02person respects him and has high regards for him. So if I was in politics, I would have been like

11:10this. I don't have enmity with anyone.

11:13I love it so much. Pankaj ji, you should start this. Apart from being an actor,

11:17you should be a TED speaker for sure. But thank you so much for entertaining us. Atal

11:23ji was such a good, it was such a good portrayal. And you didn't go overboard,

11:27very contained acting. Thank you. I didn't know much about the political figure,

11:32but I learned a lot. Thank you.

11:34Thank you, Manju. Thank you so much.

11:36You take care and thank you for entertaining us.

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