Actor Pankaj Tripathi has carved a place for himself in the Indian film industry; from playing side characters to leading entire movies and series. However, Pankaj confesses that being recognised only as his characters wasn’t always something to be happy about.
Speaking in an interview, he said, “If today people call me by my characters’ names, I like it more. In the beginning however, around six-seven years ago, I would feel bad that people don’t know my name. They would say ‘aap actor ho, uss film mein Sultan ka role kiya tha’ I would always wish they knew my name. And today, everyone knows my name but they love my characters so much that they deliberately call me by those names.”
He says that now he has an established fan base, there are often crazy fan encounters. He said, “There’s a fan who plans trees on the occasion of my birthday every year. Then there was another one who I encountered while shooting in Delhi for ‘Fukrey 3’. He was shouting for two-three hours about how big a fan he is. But we aren’t allowed to get pictures clicked while we are in the character’s costume, in case the look gets leaked. I later got a handwritten note delivered to him.”
When asked what his biggest struggle today, he said it is the weight of expectations he now feels he is under. “Logon ki ummeedein badh gayi hain, uss trust ko barkaraar rakhun. (People’s expectations have increased for me, so I want to maintain their trust) People tell me they listen to me, they go on YouTube to watch my interviews. Itna sammaan hai, emotional ho jaata hoon. (There’s so much respect, I get emotional)”
