Pankaj Tripathi, “Playing Atal Bihari Vajpayee Was The Biggest Challenge Of My Career”

The versatile actor Pankaj Tripathi couldn’t be  busier  if he tried. “I’ve completed  the Atal Bihari Vajpayee biopic and now I am shooting for the sequel to Stree in Chanderi. Stree is huge  fun to shoot. It is nice to do a lighthearted  horror film after doing very serious film like the biopic on Atalji.”

Pankaj says shooting the  Atal Bihari Vajpayee  biopic was a learning experience  for him.  “I have never done a biopic before.He was so much more than a politicians. Atalji was a poet, thinker, reformist. Just knowing about him made me a better  human being.”

Pankaj no longer wastes his time on the sets between shots. “I’ve developed  a very good habit of reading. I  spend my free time  reading up on various subjects. The more knowledge one acquires the more ignorant one feels.”

The other  change  in  Pankaj is  sartorial. “I’ve acquired a  taste for Khadi and Handloom clothes. People have no idea of how comfortable and  how beautiful the these fabrics are. In my hometown Gopalganj  in  Bihar there is very large outlet for handloom material. I buy all the sheets curtains and  kurta material from this store whenever I visit home.”

One of the reasons Pankaj enjoyed playing Atalji was the dhoti. “It is such a comfortable apparel . I grew up watching my father in it. Now I got to wear it while playing Atalji.No  apparel can match the dhoti in  comfort and elegance.”

OMG2 is  on release. But all Pankaj will say at the moment is, “It was  a very enjoyable experience. The  director Amrit Rai is also from Bihar. We  bonded well and I think we’ve made a  film that  we can be proud of.”

After the  release  of OMG2 Pankaj intends to take  a sabbatical. “This volume of work doesn’t suit me. I need to take  a vacation from my vocation  to recharge my batteries.”