Pankaj Tripathi recalls time when he’d ride his bike 45 km everyday to find work, would hardly get any money: ‘Saalon ka parishram hai…’

Kadak Singh’s trailer was launched at the opening ceremony of the recently concluded 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) followed by a packed masterclass in Goa. Pankaj received a roaring response when he was felicitated and recited a poem for the dignitaries and other guests in the audience. The actor reveals that the love he’s receiving from the audience and critics is a heartening and humbling experience.

 

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Talking about the love he received at this year’s IFFI, Pankaj shares, “It feels good. Saalo ka parishram hai (it is years of labour). People are connected to the stories more than they are to me. It is the effect of these stories, the characters I played. A little bit of my life and journey can also be a contributing factor. People still wonder who this person is, how he worked his way here. The love I receive today is a mixture of all these things and I feel thankful, vinamra mehsoos karte hai (I am humbled).”

 

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Pankaj has time and again won hearts with the relatable characters he has played on screen. When asked what his process of getting into the skin of these characters is and how he plays them so close to reality, he says he chooses to “flow like a river” rather than have a rigid process.

“My process is to become a river. Rivers are so beautiful, wherever she finds its course she flows. Similarly, I go with the flow. I have learnt acting, studied it and I can talk about it for two hours but it doesn’t serve any purpose. For example, when a yogi is new, he focuses too much on meditation, would talk about the practise and would feel that meditating in the Himalayas and the rules of it, but a seasoned yogi will know that the actual meditation can happen at a crossroad, it doesn’t need special arrangements. Actual meditation happens in the midst of chaos. Acting is like that for me. The camera, without being judgemental, captures time and place so you should also be free of judgement in front of the camera and do what the director says, the way Tony da (director of the film — Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury)  said and I did in Kadak Singh, then everything falls in place.”

Revisitng his long journey of twenty years as an actor, Pankaj shared that in his struggling phase he’d painstakingly ride long distances to reach a studio in Trombay (eastern suburb of Mumbai) to find work and would hardly get paid.

When asked if he looks back from where he got here, he says, “Yes, I look back but when I do, I get pain in my lower back, so I choose to keep looking forward (chuckles). Everyday I used to ride my bike for 45 kilometres to reach a studio in Trombay and I’d get paid very less. Your lower back will show if you’ve done a lot of sangharsh (struggle).”

“Jokes apart, I don’t really know how it all happened, how it pan out so beautifully, imaandaari se hum lage hue the (I was working with utmost honesty),” he adds.

As Pankaj promotes Kadak Singh, he calls it a “unique film”, something very different from the two other movies that released these year and went on to become a success at the box office — Fukrey 3 and OMG 2.

Discussing how his audience has high expectations from him, he says, “I don’t spend time thinking about it, navigating through expectations. I had to act, I did it, I had an experience. Now I am excited to see how the audience likes it. It is truly a special film.”

“Of course it is very different from Fukrey 3 and OMG 2, it will make you think a lot but at the same time it is a hardcore commercial film. It has all the elements of mystery, thrill, human drama, relationships. You’ll cry and get scared and laugh, you’ll also be tensed. It has all the right ingredients of a commercial masala film but through an empathetic gaze and a lot of care, and that’s what makes this film really special,” he concludes.