Panchayat’s ‘Vidhayak ji’ appears to take dig at Pankaj Tripathi for ‘glamourising struggle’, claims he was first choice for Sultan in Gangs of Wasseypur

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At the News18 Rising India 2023 summit, Manoj recalled the story once again, and said, “I thought I’d forgotten my slippers at the hotel, but during Wasseypur, Pankaj quietly came up to me and said, ‘Do you remember your slippers were stolen at the Patna hotel? I took them’.” The two actors worked together on the film Gangs of Wasseypur, which could have featured Pankaj Jha as well, but it didn’t pan out.

Jaaniye Pankaj Tripathi, Manoj Bajpai ke kitne bade fan hai #TheKapilSharmaShow mein iss weekend raat 9:30 baje. @KapilSharmaK9 @kikusharda @haanjichandan @Krushna_KAS @bharti_lalli @sumona24 @apshaha @Banijayasia @BajpayeeManoj @TripathiiPankaj @DrKumarVishwas pic.twitter.com/JtPl9St4qn

— sonytv (@SonyTV) September 19, 2019

The biggest struggle in the film industry, Pankaj Jha said, is often to keep directors happy by ‘acting’. “These people have complexes, they have huge egos. They get upset if you don’t greet them, or if you voice your opinions. They get so upset that they refuse to work with you again, and they tell their friends to not work with you either. It’s happened to me,” he said. Asked to give an example of such an experience, he continued, “I was going to do Wasseypur, and I got a call from MC. I was in Patna, so I returned after a couple of days. By then, he’d got someone else to do the character I was supposed to play… It was the role of Sultan. I asked him why, but… After that, I didn’t get a call from that production house.”

The role of Sultan Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur was played by Pankaj Tripathi, and in many ways, it fuelled his rise up the ranks of Bollywood. He is now regarded as a supremely talented performer, and is sought-after for roles across genres.