Pratik Gandhi recalls audition experience: ‘A guy told me your face doesn’t look rich’

At the inaugural session of The Indian Express' series Expresso, actor Pratik Gandhi spoke about his initial days when he was discriminated for his looks.

Pratik Gandhi speaks about his early years in the film industry. (Image: Pratik/Instagram)

Actor Pratik Gandhi, a theatre-artiste-turned-actor who shot to fame with SonyLIV’s hit show Scam 1992, graced the inaugural session of The Indian Express’ six-part series Expresso, along with his Do Aur Do Pyaar co-star Vidya Balan. During the event, the conversation steered toward the appearance of the two actors and the insults they faced in the early part of their careers. Pratik claimed that he used to miss out on roles because his looks were considered to be ‘not rich’.

During his formative years in Mumbai, Pratik used to work as a part-time mechanical engineer installing cellphone towers in the city, and on the side, the actor used to audition for roles. “I love that phase, that taught me a lot of things. I had shifted to Mumbai from Surat in 2004 with a diploma in Production Engineering. I had done some theatre work in my home town. With that, I came here thinking that Mumbai would be the place I would be able to do both things.”

Back then the TV industry was blooming and numerous serials were being made in Mumbai, but for Pratik Gandhi, it was hard to penetrate the industry. “TV rejected me outright. All the auditions that I gave… I got completely rejected. Their idea of an actor for a television show was a little different. My appearance didn’t work for them. They were looking for a certain kind of physique, skin color, and look.”

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Pratik went on to narrate a hurtful experience that affected his self-esteem. “Back then, in a room twenty people would audition one after the other. And when you are performing, others will be watching you. In one such audition, the guy told me, ‘Everything else is fine, but your face doesn’t look rich. That will be a problem, yaar.’ I thought to myself ‘How do I work on that?’ If the problem is my acting skills, I can work on that. If it is my dialogue delivery, I can work on that. But what do I do with this? I laughed at it, and I realised I was too early, and that I should take my time. The theatre was my space. It gave me comfort. So, I continued doing it for the longest time.”

However, now things have changed as Pratik has earned a name as a performer in the industry. The actor himself admitted that the time he was chasing money was over, and it had started to chase him. “I think money likes me now. I was uninterested in it for a long time, and then I started to chase it. I spent a lot of time going after it. And. now, it is chasing me, I think.”

Other than Do Aur Do Pyaar, which is releasing on April 18, Pratik Gandhi also has projects like Phule, Dedh Bigha Zameen, Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan?, and Dhoo, Dhaam in various stages of production. He is also playing Mahatma Gandhi in the web series Gandhi.

The Indian Express group, HSBC and Taj Hotels have come together to build a unique platform- The Indian Express ‘Expresso’ with an aim to create content that is eclectic, intimate, intelligent and fun with personalities from sphere of art, culture and entertainment.

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