New Delhi, Dec 7: Women’s upliftment has a long way to go in society but at least it can happen in cinema and literature, believes Pankaj Tripathi, who feels lucky to have played supportive fathers to daughters and an ally to his female counterparts in many of his movies.
Tripathi, who has a daughter with wife Mridula, is known for his sensitive portrayal of a father in films such as “Bareilly Ki Barfi” and “Gunjan Saxena”.
“I have been lucky that I got such scripts, this is just a coincidence. I have a great relationship with my daughter and in my life, I’m surrounded by four-five women. I don’t know if it is right to say, but I believe I have started to understand women better,” the actor told PTI in an interview.
Not just the father-daughter relationship, Tripathi said he has been part of movies where his characters become an ally to women, be it “Nil Battey Sannata”, “Anaarkali of Aarah” or “Mimi”, for which he won a National Film Award in the supporting actor category.
“I have played men who go to great lengths to help women. My thoughts align with such stories. I believe that in our society, the kind of upliftment women need has not really happened. So if it hasn’t happened in society, at least, it should reflect in our cinema and literature. Hopefully, it will have an effect in society over time,” he added.
Reminded of his complex relationship with his on-screen sons whether it was in the series “Mirzapur” or most recently “OMG 2”, the actor joked, “If I had a son, then we would have a complex relationship in real life too.”
Tripathi’s new film is “Kadak Singh”, a thriller directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury of “Pink” fame.
The film follows the perplexing journey of AK Shrivastav (Tripathi), who battles retrograde amnesia as conflicting narratives from his past emerge.
To a lot of hardcore film buffs, Tripathi said the movie is different than other thrillers of the past that explored the theme of amnesia.
“We recently released a small promo. It shows this guy, when he opens his eyes in the hospital, then he is just looking at all the faces in front of him. He doesn’t say anything. He sees that there are five men and one woman, so he stares at her for a long time… So it was not a routine role. It is a sensitive character and has a lot of layers,” he said. (PTI)
