While Covid played havoc with the rest of the world Pankaj Tripathi went through an extended period of success in 2020 with Gunjan Saxena, Mirzapur 2, Ludo and and now there is one more Criminal Justice 2.
Says Pankaj, “I play one of my most layered interesting characters. So yes, it’s quite a lot for one year. It’s not as though I was slogging throughout the year. On the contrary, I was home with my wife and children for the first time for so long. For this, I am grateful to Covid.”
Most of Pankaj’s releases in 2020 were shot in 2019. “I was happy to have such a variety of roles to express myself as an actor. There was a time when I only hoped to get work, good bad or indifferent. Now I’m getting only good work. I came to Mumbai only to make acting commercially viable for me. I had a family to look after. Bills had to be paid. For this I had to find a way to make acting payable. Otherwise I’d be happy doing theatre in Patna all my life.”
Pankaj is now looking at a change of image. “I invest myself equally in all roles. Chahe woh bada ho ya chota achcha ya bura I don’t judge my characters. But yes, Shakeela is different. I get to play a superstar from the South, based on no one in particular. I’ve always wanted to play a star on screen.”
In real-life Pankaj never wants to lose connection with his roots. ” Actors wear so many masks all the time they forget who they really are. I don’t want to be one of those actors. I make every effort to stay grounded. I don’t get impressed easily by any actor, and that includes myself. But yes my character Madhav Mishra in Criminal Justice is special.”