Exclusive! Pankaj Tripathi on Sherdil: Since I have lived in a village, Gangaram is a familiar character to me

Pankaj Tripathi was in Kolkata to promote his upcoming film, Sherdil: The Pilibhit Saga. The actor, who is also gearing up to return as Kaleen Bhaiya in Mirzapur 3, shared his experience of shooting Srijit Mukherji’s film. Sherdil delves into man-animal conflict and also features Sayani Gupta and Neeraj Kabi in key roles.

Talking about preparing for his character, Pankaj said that a character like Gangaram is familiar to him and hence, he did not have to prepare much. “I had a kind of idea of the character. I understand the basic crisis of the character. I have lived in a village and I know people like Gangaram. Character ka sur pakadne mein mujhe do din lage. That is to understand what his behaviour will be like. That’s all,” said the actor.

Meanwhile he emphasised that the characters he plays on screen are usually bigger than him as an actor. “Gangaram is going to sacrifice himself for his village. That is huge. I cannot think of going to sacrifice myself for the greater good. All the characters I play are bigger and larger than the real me. Since we are human beings, we have limitations. Characters do not have any limitations. They flourish as much as the writer wants them to flourish,” he said.

Pankaj is also extremely happy working with the Sherdil unit. Talking about Srijit, he said, “I have no idea that he is an angry director. Woh kabhi gussa nehi huye. I had a very good experience with the unit. It was a small unit. We shot in the forest for 20-22 days. We used to start at 5 am. Manpasand khane the. We used to have Bengali food. I loved that area. I liked that area so much that I will go to visit that forest again.” explaining his love for the forest, he said, “I love the jungle. I want to build my own forest one day. I don’t know when that will happen. But I want to make a jungle of my own.”

The initial works for his Amazon Prime webseries Mirzapur 3 has started. “I have no idea when it will come. No one knows. First it will be made and then it will be released. Yes, I know it will come. I am excited about it,” he said. However, he added that he is a nonchalant person in general. “To tell you the truth I am not an excited person in general. When people ask me if I am excited or not, I tell them that I am excited. But in reality, I am pretty calm as a human being. I don’t often get excited with cinema or acting,” he told us.

Pankaj also elaborated the contrast of the two characters, Gangaram in Sherdil and Kaleen Bhaiya in Mirzapur. “Gangaram is a character I know. For Kaleen Bhaiya, I bring my creative imagination in. In characters such as this, an actor brings in his craft and imagination. In fact, even for the characters that are known, familiar, need craft and imagination to portray,” said the actor.