Pankaj Tripathi may have become one of the go-to actors for several acclaimed filmmakers in the Hindi cinema and digital space today, but he still remains very humble about his journey to fame and stardom.
At the first edition of News18 India’s Amrit Ratna Samman event that took place in New Delhi on Tuesday, Tripathi recalled how he got his first ever film ‘Run’ in which he played a blink-and-miss role.
“They had come to me with an offer. I didn’t have to go anywhere for my first film. It was a very small part though. They were looking for an actor because the one they had initially finalised, he ran away. So just one hour before the shoot in Delhi, they began searching for an actor. Someone told them, ‘there’s an actor sleeping over there, he has a decent comic timing.’ Main soya hua tha (I was sleeping). They came to me and woke me up. I asked them, ‘Who are you?’ They said, ‘Film dene aaye hain (We have come here to offer you a movie).’ I was like, ‘Ye kaisa aadmi hai?’ So, I got my first film while I was sleeping. And after that I wouldn’t get movies even after running (laughs),” Tripathi recalled.
Tripathi, who earned National Film Awards- special mention for his performance of a CRPF officer, said that he never had any big dreams to become a star in Bollywood. “I just wanted people to know me as a good actor. Becoming a superstar or getting mobbed was never my purpose,” he added.
Hailing from a small town in Bihar, Tripathi has made a name for himself without having any godfather in the industry. He said it was actor Manoj Bajpayee who inspired him to venture into the world of acting.
“Manoj Bajpayee ji is my inspiration. I didn’t even know what kind of challenges I was going to face but his journey inspired me. Also, there are no set parameters to measure the talent. It’s not written on your forehead that you are talented. There’s no criteria for talent especially in cinema. There are so many people auditioning for a particular role. You will find huge queues. So, it’s very difficult to have a breakthrough,” Tripathi said.
