With several big projects — including Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, Ludo and 83 — under his belt, it is surprising when Pankaj Tripathi says that he holds Kagaz closest to his heart. But the actor has his reasons — he believes that in telling the real-life story of Lal Bihari, the Azamgarh-based farmer who was declared dead on paper, the Satish Kaushik-directed film wonderfully captures the earthiness of rural India. While Bollywood films have discovered the charm of small-town stories in the recent years, Tripathi says that the industry has yet to wake up to its rural counterpart.

"There-s a large part of India, and a beautiful one at that, which remains unexplored on the big screen. There needs to be a better depiction of rural India; it needs to go beyond the caricaturish portrayals for comic relief. There are many underdog stories of relentless work and perseverance waiting to be told," argues the actor.