Actor Pankaj Tripathi has been playing all his roles with utmost perfection, be it that of a criminal in Mirzapur and Gangs of Wasseypur or that of an emotional father in Bareilly Ki Barfi and Gunjan Saxena. All his roles, to this day, have been based in the heartland of the country and the audience has barely seen him as a royal or a rich character. But this is not by choice. Tripathi believes he is equally capable of acing a “posh” role if given an opportunity. However, he mentioned in a recent interview that in cinema, people tend to stereotype and box actors into particular roles based on their looks.
While interacting with ANI, Tripathi insisted on ‘changing the perspective of cinema’. He said, “In cinema, we have made a stereotype that a doctor looks like this, an engineer looks like that. During auditions, a brief is written even for the junior artists like ‘rich look, corporate look’. Humne baant rakha hai duniya ko, ki ye look hota hai, vo look hota hai (We have divided the world based on looks). We imagine Katrina Kaif in the role of a doctor. But you go to Delhi’s AIIMS, how many Katrinas will you find there?”
To explain further, Tripathi quoted the example of one of India’s biggest industrialists. He said, “Imagine if Mukesh Ambani was not an industrialist but an actor. If he had to go for an audition, he would have never been cast as a rich industrialist, saying ‘Rich look toh hai hi nahi (He doesn’t have a rich look)’. What is this rich look? He is the biggest industrialist in the country.”
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Tripathi added that though in cinema, there are distinctions based on how a person looks, that is not the case in society. He concluded, “So, everyone has built this perception that a policeman looks like this, a rich man looks like this, a poor man looks like this. But this is not the case in the society.”
The actor is currently gearing up for the release of his next film, Main Atal Hoon, a biopic on the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He plays the titular role in the film which will hit the theatres on January 19.
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‘If Mukesh Ambani was an actor, no one will cast him as a rich industrialist’: Pankaj Tripathi feels ‘cinema has created stereotypes’ – The Indian Express
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