I had to go door-to-door for auditions, wait outside offices and say I’m an actor, give me work: Pankaj Tripathi

24/10/2020

Actor Pankaj Tripathi has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career. From smaller parts in Gangs of Wasseypur, Dilwale, and Omkara, to meatier roles in Stree, Newton and Gunjan Saxena:
The Kargil Girl among others, his career trajectory has been quite interesting. The actor, however, reveals that there was a point when he had to search for roles, literally.
“My career has changed over the past few years. Earlier, I had to search for work, and now it searches me. I had to go door-to-door for auditions, wait outside offices and say ‘I’m an actor, give me work’. Now, the films which will be shot in the second half of 2021, I get their scripts today,” recalls the 44-year-old, adding that earlier, it used to be very difficult “to even get to know where a film is being shot. I’d go there, only to be told that the film unit has shot and already gone”.
Tripathi also adds that no social media nor the concept of a casting director existed during the period when he was struggling. “Of course that has changed. The tougher it was to search for work before, it is to refuse a film now because of date issues,” he quips.
Doesn’t he find it tough to refuse any filmmaker, lest he ends up hurting any egos? Tripathi says it’s not that difficult.
“The other person should know the genuine reason. I get a lot of messages and film proposals, who I’m not even able to reply to. I make efforts to at least inform them that I can’t do their projects, so they know. And if replied with sincerity, the other person won’t get hurt. Without excitement, I can’t act,” he confesses.
But this is something which he could only put into practice at this point in his career. Tripathi says one can’t think about art when the fight is for mere survival in life.
“Acting mere liye pure passion ka job hai. You can’t say ‘There’s no excitement, I’ll do it even then’. Earlier, I did that, and then the excitement for me used to be the money. I’d say ‘At least kuch nahi toh survive karna hai’. Pehla jeena zaroori hai, uske baad art aata hai. But if you’re able to survive, then things like excitement come into your art. Otherwise you can’t perform art if you don’t want to do it from the inside,” he concludes.

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