QUIET STAR, LOUD IMPACT

Pankaj Tripathi breaks from acting quietly, reflecting on grief, fame fatigue, and his evolving relationship with cinema

- BY ANUPAMA CHOPRA PHOTOGRAPHY BY AASHRAY RAO

Pankaj Tripathi is a singular sensation. Since Run in 2004, the National School of Drama graduate has willed a blazing career into being. He started with sliver-thin roles but slowly graduated to hero, villain, parallel lead and comic gold — what would the Stree franchise be without Rudra? On a warm afternoon in Mumbai, he speaks about becoming Hindi cinema’s franchise king, the art of silence and why he took, without making any public declarations, a break from acting.

Edited excerpts from the conversation:

THR India: Pankaj, I remember when you told me that you were a very talkative person. But in an interview last year, you said, ‘I don’t want to speak now, I want to remain silent’. When and how did this change occur?

Pankaj Tripathi: This change came with the experience of life. There is a saying in Bihar, that a half-filled pot/vessel spills more. The one that is full, spills less. The same is true for knowledge. I used to say this line from Newton (2017) to justify it — that the sun does not mean to, but it still gives light. Similarly, a knowledgeable person shares his knowledge even when he doesn’t mean to. Later, when I was playing Atal [Bihari Vajpayee] ji’s character, someone had asked [actor] Rajesh Sharma ji this — ‘I want to learn the art of speaking from you.’ He said, ‘If you want to learn anything from me, learn the art of remaining silent.’