Pankaj Tripathi reveals he turned down OMG 2 initially, but then made time for Akshay Kumar starrer: ‘It is an important film’

Excerpts from the chat:

Q. Your acting chops have always been appreciated by the audience. There is a certain kind of relatability that the audience also feels with your roles. Has it been your conscious decision to choose work that way?

Mera dimaag sahi hai (my brain is working right). I read and choose good scripts. If I come across a good script, I don’t let it go. It is a matter of coincidence that in my initial days I was not in the situation to choose scripts as I was struggling to find opportunities in the first place. So my journey is from managing to find work to being able to choose good work.

Now when I listen to good scripts and even if I don’t have time for it, I make sure I try to make time for it because I feel these stories are substantial and important. When I heard OMG 2 for the first time, I didn’t have time for three-four months, so I had told them that I don’t have time for the next five months. The person who was lining it up for me then asked me to do a meeting (with the makers) and listen to the story once again and then decide. After the meeting I told them I don’t have the time and asked them to give me a couple of days to somehow remove some time for it. That way, on the third day, I had managed to clear my schedule for 55 days for OMG 2.

I realised that it is an important film and I have to do it. It matches my sensibilities. I think till now, mostly, I have been able to choose the right scripts, so I feel mera dimaag sahi kaam kar raha hai.

Q. When do you think an actor’s brain doesn’t work right?

I am talking about an actor like me. If and when I start believing that I am the hero of the film, and main hi main hoon, that people have come to see only me and no one else then there will be gadbad. I am not important, the story is important, that’s always been my experience and belief. Even if I make changes or improvise in a scene, it is not so that people will see me but to make the scene better, more entertaining, impactful. I always feel that acting is like wrestling, where two actors don’t fight each other but fight to make the scene better.

Q. How did you react when OMG 2, a film that was supposed to be a family film, received an ‘A’ certificate from the CBFC?

When I came to know that the film has received an ‘A’ certificate by the CBFC, even I was taken aback, surprised. When we were doing the film, at no point, did we feel that it was an ‘A’ certificate film.

As an actor, I always have ‘self-censoring’. I would never want to hurt anyone intentionally. Not even in my dreams I would want my actions, my cinema, my acting to be hurtful towards anyone. I never came here to do that. I came here to do respectable work. But having said that, today people’s sentiments are getting hurt easily and it is difficult to say anything about it. I have not framed the right thoughts about it.