Pravachan/interviews of Sri Pankaj

Actor Pankaj Tripathi is a fan of online videos of an IAS coaching school called Drishti run by one Dr Vikas Divyakriti who lectures aspirants on various aspects of General Studies an essential paper to qualify for the civil servicesWhile Tripathi Ji 46 is too old to sit for the UPSC exam he studiously follows these videos not just for the lessons but to observe the body language of the lecturers something that could add to his own realistic performances on screenIrsquom a huge fan of Tripathi Jirsquos interviews online on the other hand which is a rabbit hole of hours after hours on YouTube viewed in millionsmdashfrom even before Tripathi Ji became a legit movie and OTT starAnd itrsquos one that you emerge from feeling slightly positive and strangely enlightened although itrsquos hard to figure exactly whyActorsrsquo journeys are usually encapsulated through hardships faced Given the person must luckily break into a field that has no quantifiable entrance testmdashfacing enough humiliation along the way with no money and on occasion no place to stay Every outsider it appears has either slept on Marine Drive or Andheri station and came to showbizcity with 100 bucks in his pocketMillions in India go through the same adversities That is because they have no choice itrsquos common manrsquos majboori Those who do it for the love of a profession signify passion and therefore considered better storiesBut Tripathi Ji doesnrsquot focus on his struggles or even his acting prep so much He did arrive in Bombay Central stationmdashafter graduating from Delhirsquos National School of Drama NSDmdashalong with his bartan books and wife His wife Mridula took up a teaching job for a regular salary to sufficiently subsidise Tripathi Jirsquos creative pursuitsIf he wasnrsquot an actor it seems Tripathi Ji wouldrsquove been happy being a farmer in his villagemdashonly that his family couldnrsquot afford a tractor and so he moved to PatnaIf he wasnrsquot a star he wouldrsquove been perfectly fine being an actor doing roles on the small screen and smaller parts in filmsmdasha sustainable income was his goal anyway This is quite along the lines of Amitabh Bachchanrsquos lifemantra ldquoMann ka ho toh accha nah ho toh aur bhi accha Good if things go your way even better if they donrsquotrdquoBefore he got into NSD in his third attempt Tripathi Ji was an assistant chef at Patnarsquos popular Maurya Hotel He finds the chefrsquos job quite similar to an actorrsquos wherein you first visualise the final product and then start adding ingredients in measured quantities to achieve itAlso Tripathi Ji has always been a natural ldquovaktardquo orator which drew him first to student politics mobilising public for rallies etc He realised the core job in professional politics is to blindly align and suck up to superiors in order to get aheadHe could still join politics someday never say never Currently he employs his verbal skills to improvise on the set some superb lines for his characters on screen Hersquod just made up a funny one on passport and Vasco Da Gama for a film when I met him lastOn the Internet is he a modernday guru of sorts like his role in Sacred Games Nope The pravachans arenrsquot inyourface in the way say actor Annu Kapoorrsquos are Kapoor can answer for hours when no question has been askedTripathi Ji once met a rich guy on a flight whose kid had taken off with friends on a lowbudget Bharat darshan Because Theyrsquod heard him casually say in an interview that inexpensive travel is the best way to find oneself Who else from showbiz has a profounder cultural impact through his interviewsAn equally wellread Shah Rukh Khan SRK hands down Harvardtrained Shrayana Bhattacharya has written an illuminating awardwinning book Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh intersecting gender economics and cinema based so much on SRKrsquos interviews aloneTripathi Jirsquos words in pure quasi poetic Hindi have a similar freeflow where he often breaks into tears talking about his wife or even the death of Ustad Bismillah Khan He inevitably goes off on a tangent patiently mining nostalgia of agrarian rural life before returning to the interviewer ldquoSorry what was your question again I forgotrdquoThe other day Tripathi Ji had a thought in his head that he could use in an interview and then he instantly corrected himself Itrsquod be fake to plot these things when hersquos had so many mazedaar life experiences anyway Itrsquos best to remain unpretentiously in character but hardest tooThis is what we mean when we say we love a particular public figure As it is in the fame game actors no more compete only with other actors on screenBecause practically everyone is on the screen anywaymdashYouTube TikTok Insta Facebookhellip And howwho you come across as then defines your stardom in a showbiz sense more than simply the work you do This is why everywhere I hear people go ldquoTotally love Pankaj Tripathi yaar Mast aadmi hairdquoMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper