Pankaj Tripathi Speaks On The Joys Of Working With Kriti Sanon 

Pankaj Tripathi Speaks  On The Joys  Of  Working With  Birthday Girl Kriti Sanon  In Mimi

 The  super-versatile self-effacing and insanely humble  actor Pankaj Tripathi last seen in Kagaz  playing a man who is declared dead  by  the  government   trying to prove he is  alive, is back in Mimi.

“And this time  I  can tell you, I’ve had so much  fun.  It’s a film about  child surrogacy.  But it doesn’t  take itself too seriously.There is  no lecturebaazi on morality  . It just moves  to its own rhythm. Mujhe bada maza  aaya iss  film me kaam karke,”  I can hear the  joyi  n Pankaj’s voice.

He had a lovely time  shooting with his  pretty  co-star. “Kriti Sanon   is an educated  well-read articulate  actress. She is  not  an  airhead. She  knows what  she ‘s doing.Working with her was such a joy. Most of our scenes are together.  At  one point  in  the storytelling she  tells everyone that I am the father  of  her unborn child, when in fact I am not.It is a story that has lots  of unpredictable  twists and turns. Kriti and I would speak  on  so many subjects  other than cinema,Aaj kal ke  young actors  sirf  cinema  ke baare mein nahin  jaante. They are  aware of the world around them.”

Pankaj Tripathi says he is  fortunate to work with good actors. “I am very lucky with my co-stars specially  female  actors, I enjoyed working with Janhvi Kapoor so much in Gunjan Saxena and Richa Chadha  in Shakeela. In Mimi I have Kriti as  my  co-star and  another very talented actress Sai Tamhankar.She is  a well-known name in Marathi cinema. Then there is Supriya Pathak, another  favourite of mine. You can imagine , shooting for Mimi was like  a dream come  true for me.”

Pankaj Tripathi feels having talented co-stars makes the actor’s job so much easier. “One  really can’t do  anything on  one’s own. Every good actor needs competent co-stars. When you have Sai, Surpriya, Kriti and Manoj Pawa, as I did  in Mimi,  your  job is  so much easier and so much more enjoyable.”

Pankaj Tripathi spent  a lot of time speaking with Supriya Pathak. “She is  so talented and so underused. I’d just sit and hear her talk, as  she shared her experiences,  so much to say, so much to give. I felt like  a student in front of her.”

The actor par excellence  also has the fondest thoughts on his Mimi director. “Just like  me, Laxman Utekar is from  rural India. He  is  from the  interiors of Maharashtra  and I am from Bihar. We  had a lot  of things in common.”

Laxman allowed Pankaj to improvise. “I wouldn’t change scenes. But  I do change words in my dialogues  until they  sound like my own words,  not something that comes  out of a laptop.”

Pankaj Tripathi has tried something new in Mimi. “For the  first time I’ve let myself go. I’ve let the emotions flow. Usually I  like to keep it all  under  check. I  am not an actor who enjoys  a display of emotions. But in Mimi I’ve shown my character’s feelings more  strongly than  ever before.”

The  other  pleasure  of shooting Mimi was the locations. “We shot in   a village called Churni in   Rajasthan.  The entire district is filled with history. I am a crazy fan of heritage  homes. Every day after  shooting I would  take  off to  visit the old havelis . Each one had its own story to tell.”

[tnm_video layout=”mnmd-post-media-wide”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sc3HyeNxPs[/tnm_video]

However   the  one thing that really sets Mimi  aside from Pankaj Tripathi’s  other assignments  :  “I play the leading man, not the heroine’s father, not  the hero’s  mentor. It is  a  refreshing change. From playing bit roles,  any and everything that came  my way,   to the lead…I  look back at my journey with pride and humility. I never planned anything. I  kept acting in whatever films came my way  because I love to act. I never thought  I would get better roles .Because I didn’t think of roles as  good or bad. They were an opportunity to act.”