Acclaimed actor Pankaj Tripathi, who broke out with his understated performance as ‘Sultan’ in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, has had his share of struggles. In a recent interview, the actor spoke about the cultural shock he experienced when he landed in Delhi in 2001 to study at the National School of Drama and how he was judged by people because he spoke in Hindi.
“When I came to Delhi in 2001, I faced cultural shock. It was the first time I saw girls smoking. I was like, ‘Yeh kaisi ladkiyan hain?’ (What kind of girls are they?) But after about fifteen days, I realised that wasn’t the right way to look at it,” he shared on the YouTube channel Yuvaa. Pankaj stated that since he came from a Hindi-medium background, language became one of the first barriers he faced in the city.
“People judged me very quickly because of my language. They assumed that if someone cannot speak English fluently, they must come from a poor background or lack exposure. People often judge your capability based on the language you speak, whereas in reality, the two have nothing to do with each other,” he said.
The actor admitted that such experiences could easily make someone develop an inferiority complex, but he consciously chose not to let it affect his self-worth. “There are two ways of dealing with it. Either it becomes the source of an inferiority complex, or you rise above it. Thankfully, I never got trapped in that mindset. I never had an identity crisis, and that helped me survive those years,” he added.
When Pankaj came to Mumbai with his wife Mridula, the latter kept the family afloat for many years as he looked for acting jobs.
Recalling those difficult days in an interview with The Better India, Mridula said, “It was a tough time, but neither of us ever felt that we were doing anything extraordinary for the other person. It’s like when one hand is injured, you naturally use the other hand instead.”
On the work front, Pankaj was last seen in Krishnavataram Part 1: The Heart (Hridayam).
